Abbas Zaki, Fatah representative in Lebanon, called on Wednesday to grant Palestinian refugees in Lebanon equal civil rights, local Elnashra website reported.

He made the statement when meeting with a US delegation from the Evangelical in Beirut.

Lebanon is home to 400,000 Palestinian refugees and has repeatedly rejected their permanent settlement in the small Mediterranean state. The Palestinians refugees have no rights such as working permits or traveling outside the country.

Zaki asked the delegation to exert pressure on the US administration to implement the two-state solution. "A Palestinian state should be established and Jewish occupation of Palestinian territories should come to an end," he said.

He also stressed on respecting the Lebanese state sovereignty and reinforcing the "brotherly relations between the Lebanese and Palestinian people."

Beirut backs a 2002 Saudi peace plan that offers Israel full normalization of ties with Arab countries in return for a withdrawal from Arab land seized in the 1967 Six-Day War, and a return of Palestinian refugees.

The Palestinian refugees are allowed to keep their arms inside the refugee camps.

(Xinhua News Agency July 9, 2009)