Heavy fighting as Israel pushes into Lebanon

LEBANON: Israeli forces thrust into southern Lebanon in an expansion of their offensive, pounding towns and villages but meeting fierce resistance from Hizbollah guerrillas.

Three weeks after the war erupted when Hizbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid, Israel's security cabinet agreed to step up its offensive, entailing a ground sweep 6-7 km (4 miles) into Lebanon, a political source said. Arab TV networks said three Israeli soldiers were killed.

Israel also said it would resume full air strikes in Lebanon early on Wednesday at the end of a partial, 48-hour suspension.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has rejected international calls for an immediate halt to hostilities, said he saw the start of a process that would lead to a ceasefire.

"We are at the beginning of a political process that in the end will bring a ceasefire under entirely different conditions than before," he said.

Israel's decision to widen its three-week-old offensive came amid apparent disagreement among major powers on how to end the conflict.

Ambassadors from the five permanent Security Council members appeared split over the timing of a ceasefire after holding what were described as "frank discussions" along with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in New York.

The five - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - were unable to agree on a resolution amid differences over the sequence of any ceasefire and the deployment of an international force.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said an immediate ceasefire was "something that at this point doesn't seem to be in the cards."

The United States has so far called for a "sustainable" ceasefire, while France has submitted a draft resolution calling for an immediate end to hostilities.

Ceasefire

European Union foreign ministers called for an immediate end to hostilities, watering down demands for an immediate ceasefire at the insistence of Britain and other close U.S. allies.

A joint statement adopted at a rare August crisis meeting of the 25-nation bloc said: "The Council calls for an immediate end to hostilities to be followed by a sustainable ceasefire."

Israel's army said it had warned residents north of Lebanon's Litani river to leave the area, suggesting air raids could target areas further north than most previous strikes. Three civilians were killed and three wounded in an air strike southeast of Sidon, security sources said.

At least 620 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Lebanon. The health minister put the toll at 750 including bodies buried under rubble. Fifty-one Israelis have been killed.

The southern Lebanese village of Qana mourned the deaths of at least 54 civilians, including 37 children, killed in an Israeli air strike on Sunday that sparked global outrage and fuelled international calls for a ceasefire.

"All those killed had no shrapnel or wounds on their bodies. They all died of suffocation. The debris fell on them - their colour was blue," said Red Cross volunteer Bassam Mokdad. "If I had been able to arrive earlier, I could've found people alive."

Battles

Israeli artillery shells crashed down on the border area around the Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab, where Hizbollah said it had destroyed a tank in battles with Israeli troops.

Al Arabiya television said three Israeli soldiers died there, which would be the first army fatalities since Israel lost nine soldiers on July 26. Hizbollah said it had inflicted 35 casualties in house-to-house battles at Aita al-Shaab.

Israel's justice minister said about 300 of an estimated 2,000 Hizbollah fighters have been killed in three weeks of fighting, and the tourism minister later said 400 had been killed. Hizbollah, which says it does not hide its dead, has announced 43 deaths in that period.

The intense fighting took place on the same day as Israel's security cabinet gave the green light for an expansion of military operations in southern Lebanon, where troops were now on the ground in at least four separate areas.

"I reckon the time required for the (army) to complete the job, and by that I mean that the area in which we want the international force to deploy is cleansed of Hizbollah, will take around 10 days to two weeks," Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told Army Radio.

Rockets

Israel wants to push Hizbollah back and stop it firing rockets over the border. However, an Israeli minister said there was no way its forces could destroy all the missiles, comments apparently aimed at lowering Israeli public expectations.

Israel has rejected calls for a truce as world powers differ over the urgency of halting the war.

Most Arab and European governments have insisted on an immediate end to fighting but Israel's closest ally, the United States, has said any ceasefire must be part of a broader deal that ends the threat to the Jewish state from Hizbollah.

The United Nations has postponed discussion on mobilising an international force for Lebanon until at least Thursday, to wait for more progress towards a political solution. France, tipped to lead the new force, said it must be bigger than the 10,000 troops suggested by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, be sufficiently well armed and have precise guidelines when it comes to opening fire.

Israeli aircraft bombed eastern Lebanon near Syria on the second day of what it had said would be a 48-hour partial halt to air strikes, Lebanese security sources and witnesses said.

The raids were aimed at "preventing the transferring of weaponry" to Hizbollah, the army said. Israel had said it would use air strikes against Hizbollah and to back ground forces.

The United Nations was forced to scrap two aid convoys planned for villages close to Lebanon's southern border because it could not get security clearance from Israel.

Beirut, Wednesday, Reuters, AFP