60 cvilians have been ’sacrifised’, among them 37 are children

Israel said it mistakenly destroyed a four-story building near a Hezbollah rocket-launching site in Qana, Lebanon, on Sunday where 60 people died, including 37 children, according to Lebanese internal security officials.

It was the deadliest attack in 19 days of fighting between Hezbollah militia and Israeli forces, which began after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid.

A Red Cross official said the Qana airstrikes hit a residential building that housed refugees, which Israel said was near Hezbollah rocket launching sites.

“I saw several bodies of children, women and old men,” reported CNN’s Ben Wedeman. “Residents were digging with their bare hands, taking more and more bodies out. Parts of the town were completely bombarded, as if hit by a giant mallet in many places. I was told by one Lebanese army officer that they counted more than 80 individual strikes on the town.”

During an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council on Sunday, Secretary-General Kofi Annan again called for an end to the fighting.

“We must condemn this action in the strongest possible terms,” said Annan. “I am deeply dismayed that my earlier calls for immediate cessation of hostilities were not heeded, with the result that innocent life continues to be taken and innocent civilians continue to suffer. I repeat that call once again.”

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, speaking during a visit to California on Sunday, said the attack added urgency to the situation.

“What has happened at Qana shows that this is a situation that simply cannot continue,” Blair told reporters after speaking with other world leaders, including Lebanon’s Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. “I think there is a basis for an agreement that would allow us to get a U.N. resolution, but we have to get this now.”

Blair said negotiations should result in “a general cessation of hostilities in a way that allows us to put an end to them for good,” promising “more details” after a second discussion with Siniora.

President Bush said Sunday’s events highlight the need for a lasting peace.

“Today’s actions in the Middle East remind us that the United States and friends and allies must work for a sustainable peace, particularly for the sake of children,” Bush said.

Earlier, the White House issued a statement expressing condolences for the “terrible and tragic incident” in Qana.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday that Israel needed 10 to 14 more days to complete its mission against Hezbollah militia.

Senior U.S. State Department officials said Rice will leave Jerusalem for Washington on Monday to negotiate a draft resolution to present to the Security Council this week aimed at bringing a halt to the crisis.

In Beirut, outrage about the attack sparked violent protests at the U.N. compound.

And in Gaza City, Palestinian security forces on Sunday ejected about 2,000 demonstrators who had stormed the U.N. compound protesting the Qana attack.

‘We can’t do anything for them’

The IDF said that residents of Qana had been warned to leave by radio announcements and by air-leaflets because it was a combat area.

“The building itself was not targeted,” Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisen told CNN. “The building itself was next to the rocket-launcher sites and we are targeting all of those rocket-launcher sites. This was a mistake and we will have a full investigation.”

A Lebanese emergency official — speaking live on Al-Arabiya TV — said rescuers lacked the heavy equipment to remove people still trapped under the collapsed building.

“We can’t do anything for them under the rubble because we do not have the right equipment,” the unidentified official said.

Red Cross worker Sami Yazbak, who was helping to pull bodies from the building, said many of the children who were sleeping inside were handicapped.

Video broadcast by Arab TV showed the bloodied bodies of women and children who appeared to be wearing nightclothes. Many of the bodies were under rubble in the basement of the building.

IDF spokesman Jacob Dalal told CNN that Hezbollah has used the village to fire rockets into western Galilee, including the coastal town of Nahariya. Dalal said Israel was exercising its right to defend itself with the airstrikes.

Dalal said “there was a specific Hezbollah asset” the IDF was targeting. “We have been hitting rocket launchers from that village for several days,” Dalal said.

“Clearly, we did not know the civilians were in the way,” he said.

Dalal said Hezbollah turned the village into a war zone.

“Hezbollah has chosen this as their launching ground for their attacks on us intentionally endangering their civilians because they know that something like this is liable to happen,” Dalal said.

Qana, 10 miles east of the southern Lebanese coastal city of Tyre, was the location of an attack by Israeli forces 10 years ago in which more than 100 Lebanese refugees were killed.

On April 18, 1996, Israeli artillery pounded a U.N. center crowded with civilians. Israel later said the attack was a mistake. At that time, Israel accused Hezbollah militants of hiding behind civilians.

Lebanese prime minister condemns attack

The attack prompted an impassioned television address by Lebanon’s Siniora.

“Out of respect for the souls of our innocent martyrs and the remains of our children buried under the rubble of Qana, we scream out to our fellow Lebanese and to other Arab brothers and to the whole world to stand united in the face of the Israeli war criminals,” the prime minister said.

Siniora called for an immediate, unconditional cease-fire and an international investigation, and rejected planned talks with Rice.

After the announcement, Rice canceled her planned visit to Beirut.

A U.S. official in Washington called the decision by the Lebanese prime minister “unfortunate.”

In Jerusalem, Rice said she was “deeply saddened” by the deaths and would continue her peace mission.

“I will continue to meet with Israeli officials as we work to bring in place the elements necessary to put an end to the conflict,” Rice said during a Jerusalem news conference. “My work is here.”

Rice was to meet with Olmert on Sunday evening.

France, Jordan, and the European Union said the attack underscored the need for an immediate cease-fire in the conflict.

Hezbollah launches more than 100 rockets

In Israel, police officials said 134 Hezbollah rockets slammed into the Jewish state on Sunday. Officials reported 48 injuries, one of them serious.

Twenty-four rockets landed in Akko, Nahariya, Kiryat Shimona, Metula and in the upper part of the Galilee, police said.

Also Sunday, the Israeli military confirmed that its troops had moved into areas of southeast Lebanon called Kfar Kela and Odayse as part of an operation to control the area between the Israeli border town of Metulla, in Israel’s northeast, and the Lebanese city of Tyre on Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast.

Also, Israeli Defense Forces said Sunday its ground troops were operating in the border village of Taiyba in southeastern Lebanon, an area Israel said Hezbollah uses to launch rockets.

Troops have killed at least three Hezbollah militants and found stockpiles of rocket-propelled grenades, anti-tank missiles, a cannon with shells and a machine gun, the IDF said.

Four Israeli soldiers were injured on Sunday when an anti-tank rocket hit their tank in southern Lebanon, an Israeli military spokesman said.

Four US Marines have been reported dead in Iraq

Four U.S. Marines were killed in combat Thursday in Iraq’s Anbar province, west of Baghdad, the U.S. military announced.Three of those Marines were assigned to 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, according to a military statement on Saturday.

On Friday, the U.S. military announced the death of the fourth Marine, who was assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5.

Thirty-eight U.S. troops have died in Iraq during July.

Since the start of the war, 2,565 U.S. troops have died in Iraq. Seven Department of Defense civilian employees have also died in Iraq.

Sunni mosques, cleric attacked

Gunmen attacked two Sunni mosques early Saturday in Baghdad, The Associated Press reported.

Muhammad Rassulluallah mosque in western Baghdad was sprayed with gunfire shortly after midnight, police said, adding that windows were shattered and walls damaged, according to AP. A guard was wounded.

An hour later, nearby Ashra al-Mubashara mosque was stormed, but gunmen fled when Iraqi police arrived, AP cited officials as saying. Also, police said a regional leader of the Iraqi Border Protection force was killed in Karbala, AP reported.

Four worshippers were killed in a separate mortar attack on a Sunni mosque in southern Baghdad hours earlier, Iraqi emergency police said.

The AP also reported the killing of a Sunni cleric from a tribe opposed to al Qaeda in Iraq while driving in Samarra, 60 miles (97 kilometers) north of Baghdad, according to police.

In other violence Saturday morning, 12 workers were wounded when a grenade exploded in an area of central Baghdad where day laborers line up for work, according to police. A road bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol wounded three civilians and three police officers in a north Baghdad neighborhood, police said.

U.S. troops headed for Iraq

About 3,200 members of the 82nd Airborne Division based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, will start heading to Iraq on August 6.

The announcement of their deployment came a day after U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered the Alaska-based 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team to stay an additional four months in Iraq.

The division has been training and preparing for the past 10 months, according to an Army press release from Fort Bragg.

Most of the paratroopers are infantry, but some are trained in military intelligence, engineering and police duties.

Cease-fire offers rejected by Israel

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice returned to the Middle East Saturday, hours after Israel rejected a U.N. call for a three-day cease-fire.

Rice is to meet Saturday night with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem, the first stop in her latest bid to negotiate an end to fighting.

It has not been announced when she might travel to Beirut to meet with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

The United States does not support calls for an immediate cease-fire. The Bush administration has said Israel must be able to sufficiently weaken Hezbollah forces or hostilities would only start up again.

On Saturday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said that Israel had been counting on a victory to secure a political solution, but that such efforts have failed.

“It’s clear to now that the Zionist enemy has not been able to reach a military victory. I’m not saying that. They said that. The whole world is saying that,” he said.

The U.N.’s appeal for the cease-fire came from its emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland “so that we can evacuate wounded, evacuate children, evacuate the elderly and the disabled from the crossfire in Lebanon.”

A third of the people killed in Lebanon have been children, he said.

Israel government spokesman Avi Pazner said Israel rejects a temporary cease-fire for getting civilians out of southern Lebanon.

“There is no need for a 72-hour temporary cease-fire because Israel has opened a humanitarian corridor to and from Lebanon,” Pazner told reporters.

“The problem is completely different. It is the Hezbollah who is deliberately preventing the transfer of medical aid and of food to the population of southern Lebanon in order to create a humanitarian crisis which they want to blame Israel for.”

Deal in works to end crisis

Meanwhile, Hezbollah representatives and Lebanese cabinet ministers have reached an agreement in general — but with some major reservations — on a proposal to end the crisis, high-ranking Lebanese government officials say.

Rice said she has only read news reports about the plan but said it appeared to have “some very good elements.”

En route from Asia to the Middle East, Rice told reporters she expected the weekend talks to be intense and emotional because both sides are “under extreme pressure in a difficult set of circumstances.”

She said she was not bringing a comprehensive plan to the table.

Israeli spokesman Pazner said he believes her visit with Olmert will be fruitful.

“This time, she comes to present concrete ideas,” he said. “She will be able to tell us exactly what kind of international force has to be sent here and what kind of resolution has to be passed by the United Nations.”

The Israelis have called for an international force to police a buffer zone just north of the border with Lebanon to ensure that Hezbollah cannot use the southern part of the country to launch rockets.

Israel began its operations against in southern Lebanon on July 12, after the Iranian-backed Hezbollah launched a cross-border raid, killing three soldiers and capturing two others. Five more soldiers were also killed.

Since then, Lebanese Internal Security Forces said Saturday that 421 people have been killed and 1,661 have been wounded in Lebanon.

Israeli officials said Friday that 52 Israelis — 33 soldiers and 19 civilians — have died and 1,233 Israelis — 110 soldiers and 1,123 civilians — have been wounded in the fighting.

Hezbollah has not released any casualty figures, but Israeli military sources estimated Friday they have killed about 200 Hezbollah fighters.

Lebanese cease-fire plan

The Lebanese cease-fire plan, developed by Lebanese Prime Minister Siniora, will be presented to Rice. It calls for an immediate cease-fire, the release of Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails and the return of two Israeli soldiers held by Hezbollah.

The plan calls for the return of displaced Lebanese and negotiations between Israel and Lebanon concerning the disputed Shebaa farms under Israeli control.

It also calls for the release of maps showing Israeli minefields near the Lebanese border; the deployment and strengthening of the Lebanese army; and the expansion of the U.N. force in the south.

Although Hezbollah agreed to a cease-fire with Israel and a larger international presence in southern Lebanon, the group objected to “a robust force” of international peacekeepers, the sources said.

Also, Hezbollah did not specifically agree to disarm, as Israel has demanded, the sources said. The plan does call for the Lebanese military to take control of southern Lebanon, along with the U.N. force.

It also calls for the implementation of the Taef accords — which ended the Lebanese civil war in 1990 — which includes the disarming of all militias, the sources said.

The question of the two Israeli soldiers being held by Hezbollah was not discussed at the cabinet meeting, the sources said.

More civilian deaths

Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike on a house in Nmeiriya in southern Lebanon on Saturday killed a woman and six children, Lebanese medical sources said.

The bodies of nine Lebanese civilians, including three children and their parents, were found along Maarub-Dardghia road near Tyre Friday afternoon, said Civil Defense Officer Salam Daher.

The family of five died after their car was hit by a missile and the other four died from shrapnel, he said.

The bodies, which were decomposing, were found during efforts to recover the dead and evacuate towns in southern Lebanon, he said.

Daher said the town of Deir Qanoun was one they were trying to evacuate but could not because of heavy shelling.

Air assault continues

The Israeli Air Force carried out 60 airstrikes overnight on Hezbollah locations and structures as the conflict entered its 18th day Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Targets struck by the IDF were located chiefly in southern Lebanon and included 37 Hezbollah warehouses and locations, roads, bridges and cars, the IDF said.

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Manchester United bids on Carrick

Tottenham midfielder Michael Carrick is set to join Manchester United on Monday after the clubs agreed a fee for the 25-year-old midfielder.

A statement read: “Manchester United and Tottenham can confirm that they have agreed terms for the transfer.

“The transfer is conditional upon the player agreeing personal terms and he will also be required to pass a medical that will take place on Monday.”

The fee has not been disclosed but is believed to be close to £15m.

Carrick had two years left on his deal at White Hart Lane, but had rejected a new contract offer in the wake of United’s persistent interest.

“This is a move that Michael wants to make,” said Spurs boss Martin Jol.

“We have given him every reason to stay, but he has asked to be allowed to leave.”

The sale of Carrick represents a massive profit for Spurs, who signed him from West Ham for £2.75m two years ago.

West Ham are reported to be in for a windfall when the transfer goes through, with a sell-on clause included as part of the deal which took him to White Hart Lane.

The midfielder has won seven England caps, making his debut when coming on as a substitute against Mexico in 2001.

He was part of England’s World Cup squad but made just one appearance in Germany, in the 1-0 win over Ecuador in the first game of the knockout stages.

United boss Sir Alex Ferguson stepped up his pursuit of Carrick once it became clear that the transfer of United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy to Real Madrid for a reported £10.2m would go through.

However, Ferguson denied reports that he is also keen to sign Carrick’s Tottenham team-mate Jermain Defoe.

“There has not been any interest from us,” said Ferguson.

“As far as the Tottenham situation is concerned, we made a move for Michael Carrick – but that is all we did.

“He is the only Tottenham player we are interested in at the moment and I think it will stay that way.”

Jol’s determination to hold out for a fee which closely matched their £20m valuation of the player has given them more transfer cash to spend.

Jol has already signed 22-year-old Benoit Assou-Ekotto from Lens and spent £10.9m on Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov but missed out on Chelsea’s left-winger Damien Duff.

The summer signing of Ivory Coast international Didier Zokora will make Carrick’s departure somewhat less painful for Jol, who can now continue his search for a left-sided midfielder in earnest.

Van Nistelroy seal off his Real Madrid move

Real Madrid have completed the signing of Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy from Manchester United.

The 30-year-old passed a medical on Friday and was presented to the press and the club’s fans at the Spanish club’s Bernabeu stadium.

“It’s a great honour to stand here in the Bernabeu,” said the Dutchman. “It’s a dream come true.”

Van Nistelrooy has signed a three-year deal with Real, who paid a reported £10.2m for his services.

He is Real’s third signing under new president Ramon Calderon after Italy’s World Cup-winning captain and defender Fabio Cannavaro and Brazil midfielder Emerson.

“We have a perfect striker who combines efficiency and power with great footballing technique,” said Calderon.

Van Nistelrooy scored 150 goals in 218 appearances after joining United from PSV for £19m in 2001.

However, he fell out with United boss Sir Alex Ferguson and recently handed in a written transfer request.

At the conference in Madrid, Van Nistelrooy said he was hurt by being left out the team for the Carling Cup win over Wigan in February.

“When we played the final, that’s when I started to feel unhappy,” said the 30-year-old.

Asked whether he wanted to leave United because he felt Ferguson was supporting other players and not giving him the support he deserved, Van Nistelrooy replied: “You summed up my feelings quite well.”

United turned down Real’s intitial bid for Van Nistelrooy, opening the door for Bayern Munich to step up their chase for the Dutchman.

Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge claimed the striker wanted to sign for them, but on Friday Van Nistelrooy insisted: “Madrid is always a first choice, it’s just no question.”

Arsenal wing-back Cole is linked wit rivals Chelsea

Arsenal have admitted to holding talks with Chelsea about the sale of Gunners defender Ashley Cole.

The 25 year old wing-back’s contract ends in 2008 and has been reported to hold peaceful talks with fellow London rivals Chelsea.

Arsenal vice chairman David Dein chooses to stay calm on the situation and said that Ashley Cole is still a Gunner and will hopefully stay one unless he choses utherwise ofcourse and told us not to rush into any kind of thouts so quickly. He said that there were some ‘civil chats’ with the clubs, nothing more yet.

Arsene Wenger on the other hand seems to be unsure and not that confident about Cole’s situation. He is not that confident in this wing-back about his decision to stay or leave.

Dein also added that Cole is a gunner and has been since he was 16. If somthing happened and Aresenal decides to take the offer that’s another story, but he assured that he is still a gunner.

Cole’s relationship with Arsenal has been strained recently and in promotional material for his new book, the defender criticised the Gunners for making him a “scapegoat” over last year’s tapping-up affair with Chelsea.

Chelsea, Blues’ manager Jose Mourinho and Cole were all fined after they breached league rules by meeting without Arsenal’s knowledge.

Cole signed his new contract after that but Chelsea’s decision to sell left-back Asier Del Horno to Valencia last week is widely expected to pave the way for him to move to Stamford Bridge.

Israel is not planning to walk into a Hezbolla trap

The Battle is at its earnest as hezbolla and Israeli forces clash is intensified on friday. The Israeli Prime-Minister promises us that thousands of Israeli units will not fall into a trap set by Hezbolla militants and enter lebanon “to quickly”, as he put it together. 

“Israel is going to do it at our own pace, at our own time, to make sure that when we go in, we go in carefully, and that we don’t walk into their booby-traps,” Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said. “We want to stop the rocket fire, but we also want to make sure that Hezbollah will not be there afterward.”

Since Israel left Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah has built up the area around Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon, according to Eisin.

“Not only [do they have] a terrorist army, but they are sort of waiting for us to come in,” she said. “They have booby-trapped the entire area. They want us to walk into those booby traps.”

The Israeli Security Cabinet on Thursday authorized the call-up of three divisions of reserves, saying an additional vote by the Cabinet is needed before troops could be deployed. A division can include as few as 5,000 troops, or as many as 10,000.

So far only the officers of those brigades have put on their uniforms and begun to train for possible military action, military sources indicated.

The Security Cabinet said the troops were being called up “to prepare the force for possible developments,” including Syria’s involvement in the fighting.

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz on Thursday went to pains to say Israel does not want a conflict with Syria.

Israel has warned Hezbollah not to try to transfer the two Israeli soldiers it abducted July 12 — sparking the current crisis — to Syria. Syria is seen as the transfer point for Iran, which intelligence officials have said is supplying Hezbollah with missiles.

Militants tout new rocket

Northern Israeli towns spent another tense day under a rain of rockets fired from across the Lebanese border. By Friday afternoon, 84 Hezbollah rockets hit the region, wounding 34 people, police said.

A Hezbollah rocket that hit the Afula area Friday carried 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of explosives, making it the most powerful rocket the Lebanese-based militant group has lobbed into Israel since the crisis began 17 days ago, Israeli police said.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the rocket landed in an open area outside Afula, which is southeast of Haifa and just north of the West Bank.

Police said five Hezbollah rockets hit around Afula on Friday. It was unclear if the others were Katyusha rockets, which already have hit the area. Katyushas carry about 22 kilograms (49 pounds) of explosives.

On its TV network Al-Manar, Hezbollah said it fired a new rocket, the Khaybar-1, with a longer range “that will go beyond Haifa.” The northern Israeli city is a frequent target of Hezbollah.

Aerial footage showed sparsely populated highways and little activity in northern Israel, including in Haifa.

A Hezbollah rocket also hit a hospital in Nahariya on Friday, damaging the facility but causing no casualties, Israeli police said.

In southern Lebanon, Israeli warplanes struck at least 110 Hezbollah targets before dawn Friday. Among the sites targeted were rocket launchers, structures, tunnels, a gas station and a base in the Bekaa Valley where the Israel Defense Forces said Hezbollah launched long-range missiles.

Israeli airstrikes near Nabatiye killed three people and wounded nine, including four children, The Associated Press reported, citing Lebanese security officials. The raid apparently targeted an apartment belonging to a Hezbollah activist, according to the AP.

The three women killed in the strikes came from the villages of Talouseh, Sheitiyeh and Bazouriyeh — the hometown of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, security officials told the AP.

Near Naqoura, also in southern Lebanon, two civilians and a journalist were slightly wounded when their convoy was struck, according to a BBC cameraman who was traveling with the convoy. It was unclear whether Israeli or Hezbollah fire hit the convoy, which had been organized to help civilians escape the fighting.

Aid agencies say they are finding it impossible to get food and medicines safely into the region, Reuters reported.

Also in southern Lebanon, the United Nations is removing unarmed observers from two outposts along the Israeli-Lebanese border as a protective measure, U.N. officials said Friday.

The move comes after Israeli airstrikes struck a separate U.N. observer outpost earlier in the week, killing four peacekeepers. The Israeli government has expressed deep regret and said it is investigating.

An Italian soldier was wounded by Hezbollah fire, leading to the evacuation of a fourth outpost in the area, U.N. officials said.

Fifty-one Israelis — including 33 soldiers — have died and 1,267 Israelis — mostly civilians — have been wounded, Israeli ambulance service officials said Friday.

Lebanese security forces said Friday that 398 Lebanese have been killed and 1,661 have been wounded since the attacks began. An unspecified number of people also are trapped under rubble, they said. The Lebanese toll was lowered from 405 deaths after the discovery of a duplication in the names of the deceased.

Hezbollah has not officially released any casualty figures, but Israeli military sources estimate about 200 of its fighters have been killed.

Bush, Blair back multinational force

President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Friday called for an international force to be sent to Lebanon to help ease the crisis in the Middle East.

After talks at the White House, Bush told reporters that the two leaders “agree that a multinational force must be dispatched to Lebanon quickly” and that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will return to the region Saturday to resume her diplomatic efforts there.

Bush said he and Blair’s “top priority” in Lebanon is to provide immediate humanitarian relief and reconstruction.

Cease-fire agreed by Bush & Blair in the Middle-East Crisis

President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced Friday their support for a U.N. cease-fire resolution to end the Mideast crisis and a multinational force to help with humanitarian relief.

“We want a Lebanon free of militias and foreign interference, and a Lebanon that governs its own destiny,” Bush told reporters after meeting with Blair at the White House.

Bush said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would travel to the region Saturday, and that “her instructions are to work with Israel and Lebanon to come up with an acceptable U.N. Security Council resolution that we can table next week.”

Fifty-one Israelis — including 33 soldiers — have died in 17 days of fighting, and 398 Lebanese have been killed since the July 12 capture of two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid by the militant group Hezbollah.

Blair said he feels “deeply for people in Lebanon and people in Israel who are the innocent casualties of this conflict.”

“And what we’re putting forward today is actually a practical plan that would lead to a U.N. resolution — could be early next week — that will allow it, put in place the conditions for it to stop,” Blair said.

Bush said, “An effective multinational force will help speed delivery of humanitarian relief, facilitate the return of displaced persons, and support the Lebanese government as it asserts full sovereignty over its territory and guards its borders.”

Bush said he planned to appeal to the United Nations “for a Chapter 7 resolution setting out a clear framework for cessation of hostilities on an urgent basis, and mandating the multinational force.”

Earlier, a British government spokesman traveling with Blair said the prime minister believed that the United States would be willing to support a United Nations resolution on the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah next week.

British diplomats have been talking about a cease-fire followed by deployment of an international border force, CNN’s Robin Oakley reported. Then a second stage would begin, involving a larger border force that would also help with disarming Hezbollah and establishing a greater role for Lebanese government forces.

Friday’s Washington meeting follows an Italian conference of key Middle East decision-makers that failed to agree on an immediate cease-fire as the United States, backed by Britain, insisted any halt to violence should be linked to a wider effort to disarm Hezbollah.

A senior U.N. diplomat has described the mood at those talks as somber. He said all the parties but the United States wanted an immediate cessation of fighting to make room for more negotiations and humanitarian aid.

Rice argued that taking such an approach would leave Hezbollah in place and armed with rockets.

Before the Rome meeting, Rice visited the Lebanese capital, as well as Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Blair, meanwhile, faces pressure at home to salvage his diplomatic reputation after an eavesdropped conversation between him and Bush at a recent Group of Eight summit appeared to show the British prime minister’s deferential relationship with the U.S. leader.

Since the outbreak of fighting between Israel and Lebanese guerrillas, Blair has put himself at odds with Arab nations and Britain’s European allies by refusing to call for an immediate cease-fire — echoing U.S. policy.

Like Bush, Blair has said a cease-fire will work only if conditions are first put in place to ensure that both sides keep it.

Meanwhile Friday, French President Jacques Chirac said France will press for a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire in Lebanon, the AP reported.

A statement from Chirac’s office called for an international force under a U.N. mandate to support the cease-fire, according to the AP. France hopes to circulate a draft within days, the AP said.

After meeting with Bush, Blair is to travel to California — the first official visit to the state by a sitting prime minister, according to the British consulate in San Francisco. He will discuss issues such as globalization, trade and biotechnology.

Crisis in the Lebanese border

Hezbollah fired Katyusha rockets into Israel from multiple locations across the border and the Israel Defense Forces replied with heavy shelling and aerial attacks, according to a statement from the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon.

The Israeli campaign is aimed at “changing the reality on the northern border,” Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Thursday.

“Hezbollah must not in the future be what it has been in the past,” Peretz said. “This may take time and it may take more force. We have both in plenty.”

“We will not agree for Hezbollah flags again to fly in our faces on the northern border,” he said.

The IDF has concentrated most of its attacks around the border communities of Maroun al-Ras, Bint Jbeil and Yarun, UNIFIL said.

The Israeli military said that over the past 24 hours, more than 150 rockets had landed inside Israel.

Thursday evening, at least five rockets struck various targets in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, causing several fires.

A Katyusha rocket caused a major blaze at the warehouse of a laundry detergent factory, the IDF said. Some of the rockets landed near a shopping center.

Earlier Thursday, Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets that fell in fields near Safed, Carmiel, Maalot and Shlomi in northern Israel, the IDF said.

Since July 12, at least 401 people — mostly civilians — have been killed in Israeli strikes, Lebanese sources said. The IDF said the death toll from Hezbollah rockets striking Israel and the fighting in southern Lebanon is 50 — 19 of them civilians.

The fighting also has wounded about 1,500 people in Lebanon and more than 300 civilians in Israel, the sources said.

Conflict has been raging since July 12, when Hezbollah guerrillas seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid.

Another Israeli soldier was abducted June 25 on Israel’s other battlefront, Gaza, by Palestinian militants, including members of Hamas’ military wing.

Thursday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas indicated there may be developments soon in the abduction of that soldier — Israeli army Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

A Hamas military spokesman denied reports that Shalit could be released imminently, The Associated Press reported.

Israel nixes expanded campaign

Israel decided Thursday not to expand its military offensive in Lebanon, but will call up additional troops to bolster its fight against Hezbollah.

The decision was made at a meeting of Israel’s Security Cabinet.

The Cabinet turned down a request by military commanders to launch an expanded campaign.

However, the ministers decided to call up additional reserves to support the troops in Lebanon, the report added.

Three additional reserve divisions, comprising thousands of troops, would be called up, The Associated Press reported.

Meanwhile, al Qaeda’s second in command pledged Thursday that the terror group would not “stay silent” on the conflict in southern Lebanon.

The video statement by Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenant, was broadcast on the Al-Jazeera television network.

Al-Zawahiri’s statement came the day after international efforts to negotiate a cease-fire in Lebanon stalled at a conference in Rome.

Peacekeeping force work in progress

Thursday, diplomatic sources said at least four countries had offered to participate in a possible multi-national peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

France, Italy, Turkey and Norway indicated a willingness to participate in the international peacekeeping force envisioned for Lebanon if a cease-fire can first be brokered, according to diplomatic sources familiar with discussions at Wednesday’s emergency summit in Rome.

The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday suffered its largest loss of life in its offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas. Nine Israeli soldiers were killed while fighting in southern Lebanese towns.

Eight soldiers were killed and 22 more were wounded in Bint Jbeil, near the Israeli border, while battling militiamen in what the IDF has called Hezbollah’s “terror capital.”

In nearby Maroun al-Ras, an Israeli army officer was killed and five soldiers were wounded in fighting, according to the IDF.

There were heavy casualties among Hezbollah fighters in Bint Jbeil, according to Israeli soldiers. The Islamic militia has not released casualty figures since fighting began.

On Tuesday the IDF said it had taken control of the city. On Wednesday it said more troops were being sent there.

Israel suffered “major losses” with the deaths of nine soldiers on Wednesday, Peretz said, but “this will not break our will.”