Rice in Israel; Hizbollah demands end to offensive

US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, arrived in Jerusalem yesterday to push for an end to fighting with Hizbollah in Lebanon as Israel signalled flexibility to get a deal on a peacekeeping force.

Accusing Rice of serving only Israel's interests, Hizbollah leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, vowed more attacks on Israel's cities if it did not end an offensive launched after the guerrilla group captured two soldiers in a raid on July 12.

Rice, who was due to dine with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday evening, said she hoped for agreement on the main conditions for a ceasefire to be outlined in a UN resolution that could be tabled as early as Tuesday.

In the latest fighting, an Israeli air strike killed a woman and six children in a house in the southern village of Nmeiriya, medics said. Meanwhile, Israel's forces pulled out of the Hizbollah stronghold of Bint Jbeil, just across the border.

At least 469 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Lebanon in the conflict, and 51 Israelis have died.

In a softening of Israel's position that could help Rice steer the sides towards a ceasefire, a senior Foreign Ministry official said Israel would not demand the immediate disarming of Hizbollah, although it still wants it disarmed eventually.

The official said Israel would demand that the proposed international peacekeeping force in south Lebanon should keep Hizbollah away from the Israeli border and prevent the group from replenishing its stockpile of rockets from Syria and Iran.

Rice welcomed an agreement on Thursday by Hizbollah cabinet members in Lebanon to seek an immediate ceasefire that would include the disarming of militias, and praised Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora for persuading Hizbollah to agree.

"I expect the discussions to be difficult, but there will have to be give and take," Rice, in the region for the second time in less than a week, told reporters en route to Jerusalem.

"I assume, and have every reason to believe, that leadership on both sides of this crisis would like to see it end." Lebanon's Siniora, whom Rice will meet later in her stay in the Middle East, argues that the main issues to be resolved include Israel's occupation of the disputed Shebaa Farms area, claimed by Lebanon, and its detention of Lebanese prisoners.

In a televised address, Nasrallah said: "Rice is returning to the region to try to impose her conditions on Lebanon again to serve her new Middle East project and to serve Israel."

"The Israelis are ready to halt the aggression because they are afraid of the unknown," he said.

The guerrilla group launched long-range missiles deeper into Israel on Friday, fulfilling Nasrallah's pledge to hit targets further south than Israel's third largest city Haifa.

Hizbollah fired more than 90 rockets from southern Lebanon into northern Israel yesterday, lightly wounding about a dozen people, the army and medics said. They have launched more than 1,500 rockets into Israel since the conflict started.

UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has called a meeting in New York today to get troop contributions for an international force, which could be 15,000-20,000 strong, even though its mandate has yet to be set by the Security Council.