cember 1989), 725 (1989),
350 (1988), 200 (1987), 108 (1986), 95 (1985)

Fiscal year: 1 July-30 June

- Communications
Highways: about 27,527 km total; 1,856 km bituminous or bituminous
treated; 7,451 km gravel, crushed stone, or improved earth; 18,220 km unimproved
earth and often impassable during rainy season mid-May to mid-September

Inland waterways: about 4,587 km, primarily Mekong and tributaries; 2,897
additional kilometers are sectionally navigable by craft drawing less than 0.5 m

Pipelines: 136 km, refined products

Ports: none

Airports: 64 total, 50 usable; 9 with permanent-surface runways;
none with runways over 3,659 m; 2 with runways 2,440-3,659 m;
12 with runways 1,220-2,439 m

Telecommunications: service to general public considered poor; radio
network provides generally erratic service to government users; 7,390 telephones
(1986); stations--10 AM, no FM, 1 TV; 1 satellite earth station

- Defense Forces
Branches: Lao People's Army (LPA, which consists of an army with naval,
aviation, and militia elements), Air Force, National Police Department

Military manpower: males 15-49, 967,047; 517,666 fit for military service;
44,176 reach military age (18) annually; conscription age NA

Defense expenditures: 3.8% of GDP (1987)
----------------------------------------------------
Country: Lebanon
- Geography
Total area: 10,400 km2; land area: 10,230 km2

Comparative area: about 0.8 times the size of Connecticut

Land boundaries: 454 km total; Israel 79 km, Syria 375 km

Coastline: 225 km

Maritime claims:

Territorial sea: 12 nm

Disputes: separated from Israel by the 1949 Armistice Line;
Israeli troops in southern Lebanon since June 1982; Syrian troops in
northern Lebanon since October 1976

Climate: Mediterranean; mild to cool, wet winters with hot, dry summers

Terrain: narrow coastal plain; Al Biqa (Bekaa Valley) separates
Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon Mountains

Natural resources: limestone, iron ore, salt; water-surplus state
in a water-deficit region

Land use: 21% arable land; 9% permanent crops; 1% meadows and
pastures; 8% forest and woodland; 61% other; includes 7% irrigated

Environment: rugged terrain historically helped isolate, protect,
and develop numerous factional groups based on religion, clan, ethnicity;
deforestation; soil erosion; air and water pollution; desertification

Note: Nahr al Litani only major river in Near East
not crossing an international boundary