Information Minister Tarek Mitri said after a Cabinet meeting late Thursday that Lebanon's foreign minister has been tasked with making arrangements for the embassy. He did not name a date for it to open.

The government's approval was another step in normalizing long troubled relations between the neighboring countries, who earlier this month agreed to establish full diplomatic ties for the first time since they gained their independence from France in the 1940s.

The two countries have also agreed to negotiate the demarcation of their border, a long-standing Lebanese demand.

Syria controlled its neighbor for nearly 30 years, until its direct hold was broken in 2005. For years Damascus resisted the establishment of diplomatic ties, and only agreed to it after a political compromise between Lebanon's feuding factions created a unity government where Syrian ally Hezbollah has considerable weight. Its assent also came after a figure seen as relatively friendly to Syria — Michel Suleiman — was installed as Lebanon's president.

At Thursday's meeting, the Cabinet also approved a decision to formally complain to the United Nations about what it perceived as recent Israeli threats against Lebanon.

On Friday, Prime Minister Fouad Saniora sent the letter of protest to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He urged Ban to inform the U.N. Security Council's member nations of the "seriousness of the Israeli threats," according to Siniora's office.

Lebanon's protest apparently refers to comments this week by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in which he warned that if Hezbollah guerrillas attacked Israel again, it would hit back harder than in the 2006 war.

Olmert said Israel did not use all means to respond then, but "if Lebanon becomes a Hezbollah state, then we won't have any restrictions in this regard."

Siniora told Thursday's Cabinet meeting that "to hear what Israeli officials say, one would think Israel was showering Lebanon with roses during its last aggression."

More than 1,200 Lebanese — most of them civilians — were killed in the 2006 war , which began after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed three others in a cross-border raid.

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