UN force garbage truck find not explosives-Lebanon

BEIRUT, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Lebanon said on Monday a suspicious material found by U.N. peacekeepers outside their base was not an explosive substance, as had first been thought.

Italian peacekeepers, using sniffer dogs, found the substance hidden in the tool box of a garbage truck in front of their base in south Lebanon on Sunday.

The force said at the time it believe the substance was a plastic explosive and handed over two men who were in the truck to the Lebanese authorities.

But Lebanese Defence Minister Elias al-Murr told a cabinet meeting that there was no cause for alarm.

"After investigation, the material that was found in the garbage truck ... was not explosive," Murr was quoted as saying in government statement.

He said the two men had been released after questioning.

There have been several attacks on the U.N. force since it was expanded in 2006 as part of a U.N. Security Council resolution that ended a war between Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas and Israel.

The attacks included a car bomb that killed six members of UNIFIL's Spanish battalion in the south in June, 2007. (Writing by Nadim Ladki; Editing by Jon Boyle)