World powers strike Mideast deal

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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - World powers agreed on Friday on a U.N. resolution to end four weeks of fighting between Israel and Hizbollah, but an Israeli government official said the offensive in Lebanon would not be halted yet.

The draft resolution was set to be unanimously approved by the Security Council later on Friday, diplomats said. The Lebanese government accepted the draft, an official source said.

An Israeli official, however, said the Israeli army would not stop its offensive until the cabinet met on Sunday to consider the resolution. The official said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would ask his cabinet to accept the document.

"Following the changes made in the past few hours, the prime minister will recommend on Sunday that the government act in accordance with the resolution," a government official said.

Earlier on Friday, Olmert ordered an expansion in the ground campaign against Hizbollah in southern Lebanon.

There was no let-up in violence. Israeli attacks killed at least 25 people in Lebanon on Friday, including six killed when a drone fired rockets at a convoy of hundreds of cars fleeing the south. An Israeli soldier was reported killed in fighting and Hizbollah rockets wounded seven people in northern Israel.

"I think it is fair to say we are hoping for a unanimously adopted resolution later today," said John Bolton, U.S. ambassador at the United Nations.

The revised U.S.-French Security Council draft resolution, obtained by Reuters, authorizes up to 15,000 U.N. troops to monitor a withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from southern Lebanon and help the Lebanese army enforce a truce.

The draft calls for a "full cessation of hostilities" and tells Hizbollah guerrillas to stop all attacks immediately and Israel to end "all offensive operations."

After fighting stops, Israel is to withdraw all its forces from southern Lebanon at the earliest. Lebanon is to deploy its armed forces throughout southern Lebanon as Israel withdraws.

MORE THAN 1,160 KILLED

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to New York in anticipation of a vote on ending the war, in which at least 1,040 people in Lebanon and 123 Israelis have been killed.

Rice phoned Olmert and Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora to try to get them to accept the text, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said the sponsors of the resolution would push for a vote regardless of their response. But she cautioned that the resolution was only a short-term settlement. "We're not here trying to solve all the problems of the Middle East overnight," she said.

At the insistence of Lebanon, the United States and Britain agreed to drop a reference to Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which permits a robust U.N. peacekeeping operation.

But Britain's U.N. ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said the text would carry strong rules of engagement anyway for the expanded force that France is expected to lead.

A second resolution on a permanent ceasefire would follow within a month, tackling a range of issues including the release of two Israeli soldiers held by Hizbollah.

AIR RAIDS

Israeli raids on a bridge near the border with Syria killed 12 people and wounded 18, hospital staff said. Witnesses said a second strike hit the bridge 15 minutes after the first had brought rescuers rushing to the scene.

Witnesses and rescue workers said at least six people were killed and 30 wounded when an Israeli drone fired rockets at a convoy of hundreds of vehicles that had left the town of Marjayoun, seized by Israel on Thursday. Around 3,000 civilians and 350 Lebanese security men were in the convoy.

Reuters reporter Karamallah Daher, who was in the convoy, said explosions erupted near the front of the column of vehicles, causing panic as drivers tried to escape the attack. Some crashed into ditches and drivers fled to nearby villages.

The Israeli military said it was checking the report.

Israeli strikes killed two people in the eastern Bekaa Valley and five in south Lebanon, security sources said.

Israeli bombs also hit electricity transformers and cut off power to the southern city of Tyre, security sources said.

An Israeli soldier was killed and one was badly wounded in fighting with Hizbollah guerrillas, Al Arabiya television reported. The Israeli army had no immediate comment.

Hizbollah announced the death of four more of its fighters.

More bombs hit Beirut's battered Shi'ite Muslim suburbs, hours after dawn raids on the capital. Many people fled the suburbs on Thursday after Israel dropped warning leaflets.

Hizbollah, whose seizure of two Israeli soldiers sparked the war on July 12, fired more than 55 rockets into Israel, wounding seven people, police and ambulance staff said.

Humanitarian agencies sought ways to get aid to an estimated 100,000 people trapped in southern Lebanon and the mayor of Tyre said the city could run out of food in two days.

Aid convoys have been unable to deliver supplies since an Israeli air strike hit a bridge on the Litani River on Monday.

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Edited August 11, 2006 by jordanianprincess