FARAYA, Lebanon — When Mart Maastik’s friends suggested a ski vacation in Lebanon, he was hesitant — and more than a little skeptical, especially about security."Skiing in the Middle East? I’d never heard of that," the 41-year-old Estonian said while standing in full skiing gear at the foothills of the Faraya-Mzaar mountains.

But Lebanon, with six ski resorts and a season that generally runs from December through April, is increasingly drawing not just Arab tourists, but Europeans, too, industry officials say. Maastik, who is in the real estate business back home, has skied in Austria, Andorra, France "and almost everywhere else," but he feels Lebanon’s slopes have a different flavor."This is quite exotic for us," he said, saying he was taken with Lebanon’s hospitality and its good weather. He said he was worried about security at first. "But I decided to forget about politics and come anyway."

Business at the area’s biggest hotel, the InterContinental Mountain Resort & Spa, plunged more than 30 percent in 2005 because of political instability in Lebanon, general manager Robert Zogbi said. The country has seen at least 16 bombings since October 2004, the largest of which killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri a year ago.

By James Owen, Published: March 31 2006 15:03, However hard you squint into the sun as it sets red over the Corniche, Beirut nowadays does not much resemble the