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: arable land 21%; permanent crops 9%; meadows and pastures 1%; forest and woodland 8%; other 61%; includes irrigated 7%
_#_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
_*People #_Population: 3,384,626 (July 1991), growth rate 1.4% (1991)
_#_Birth rate: 28 births/1,000 population (1991)