SHEBAA, Lebanon — Setting the scene for a visit by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Lebanese authorities are encouraging people to show up with their land title deeds to prove once and for all that the occupied Shebaa Farms is Lebanese, heart and soul.

"We not Syrian, we are Lebanese," insisted one of dozens of farmers who flocked to the city hall of this southern Lebanese town with their documents, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Scores of farmers wearing the traditional keffiyeh and women in black dresses and white head scarves waved worn, torn manuscripts and land register photocopies in a bid to reclaim lost land at the foot of Mount Hermon, the region's highest peak.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has urged those who had titles to quickly compile them before Annan's visit next week, said Mayor Omal al-Zuheiri.

So the farmers came to his office, first in groups of two and three, and then by the dozens, to stake their claims.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701, under which a truce was proclaimed on August 14 between Israel and the Lebanese resistance group Hizbullah, stipulates that all sides are to explore possible solutions to the Shebaa Farms dispute.

Reeling under the yoke of unrelenting resistance attacks by Hizbullah, Israel was forced in March 2000 to withdraw its troops from south Lebanon after a 18-year occupation.

However, it continues to occupy the Shebaa Farms, a 20 square kilometer (7.7 square mile) territory that rises from 400 to 2,000 meters (1,300-6,500 feet) in altitude, which it captured after 1967 war.

The Lebanese and Syrian governments have repeatedly refuted Israeli allegation that the occupied territory is Lebanon.

Shebaa Farms has a strategic importance because it overlooks the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

Stolen Lands

After the 1967 war, Israel began to occupy the farmer's land.

When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 and established a security zone in the region, the Sunni farmers were allowed to tend to their olive groves, vineyards and orchards.

But they had to make a long detour along an electrified fence to pass through the only approved crossing point at Bustara, said 72-year-old Omar Qassem Hashem, a prominent landowner.

"The last time I was able to go was in 1999," he complained. The passage was closed a year later.

Mussa Marquise had come from Dubai, where he has been working for the past 19 years, to visit his native village after the UN-brokered truce.

His family has been thrown off its land in the village.

"The Israelis made a ski slope on my grandfather's land," he insisted.

Despite the bid, many Lebanese farmers remain skeptical it would bear fruits.

Qassem Zahara, setting on a donkey laden with grapes, refused to join those at the Shebaa town hall to reclaim his land.

"I have done that often and nothing ever came of it."