* Israel wants UN to safeguard Lebanese part of village
* Residents loyal to Syria, but hold Israeli citizenship
(Adds details)
By Dan Williams
JERUSALEM, Nov 17 (Reuters) - The Israeli government approved on Wednesday a plan to withdraw troops from part of a village on the Lebanese border that has long inflamed tensions with the Hezbollah guerrilla group and neighbouring Syria.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 15-member security cabinet passed the northern Ghajar pullout in a vote but did not set a date, saying they first needed to discuss security in the vacated area with U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon.
Israel captured Ghajar, along with the Golan Heights which it abuts, from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. A later U.N. demarcation of Lebanese territory took in northern Ghajar, leaving the southern part under Israeli control. The villagers took Israeli citizenship in 1981, but see themselves as Syrians.
The Israeli cabinet secretary said in a statement that the government wanted to preserve "the security of the citizens of Israel and the fabric of life for residents of the village, which has remained one, indivisible unit."
Israel evacuated northern Ghajar in 2000 when it ended its 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon, but re-took the area during its 2006 war with Hezbollah, saying the village offered a conduit for guerrilla attacks and drug smuggling. Hezbollah, an ally of Syria and Iran, holds sway in southern Lebanon and has ministers in the Lebanese government. Resisting calls to disarm, it has cited the Israeli troops in Ghajar as evidence of a continued occupation of Lebanese soil that must be fought.
The UNIFIL peacekeeping force for southern Lebanon and Hezbollah had no immediate comment on the Israeli resolution.
U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams said in August, after a clash at another point along the 120 kilometre (75 mile) border, that an Israeli withdrawal from the northern part of Ghajar "would do a lot to help restore trust".
Villagers have said they belong under Syrian rule.
"The village should go back to Syria as part of a diplomatic negotiation with Syria," Ghajar spokesman Najib Khatib told Israel's Army Radio.
Technically at war, Israel and Syria have held indirect peace talks over the past two decades with little progress. Israel, which annexed the Golan Heights in a move not recognised abroad, has refused Damascus's call for a promise to return the strategic area. Syria has rebuffed Israel's demand that it distance itself from Iran, Hezbollah, and Palestinian militant groups.
"No government officials or figures come to talk to us ... People here are bitter and frustrated. We have been in this nightmare for 10 years," Khatib said. (Editing by Crispian Balmer and Tim Pearce)
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