News In Brief

Militias go on battling despite Lebanese pact

Lebanon's rival militias battled each other and the Army in Beirut and the mountains east of the capital Tuesday despite a troop disengagement agreement reached by Lebanon's warring groups.

The plan, endorsed Monday, would place a force of 2,000 to 3,000 Lebanese gendarmes along the ''green line'' that divides east and west Beirut and have the combatants pull back to new lines just out of sight of one another.

The political-military committee that endorsed the plan is chaired by President Amin Gemayel and includes senior delegates from the right-wing Christian Falangist Party and the four main fighting forces - the Army, the Christian Lebanese Forces militia, and the Druze and Shiite Muslim militias.