US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced visit to Beirut yesterday to seek a "sustainable" ceasefire in Lebanon, where Hezbollah guerrillas and Israeli forces are fighting in the south.
Rice met Prime Minister Fouad Siniora after her heavily guarded motorcade sped through Beirut from the US embassy to the north where her helicopter had landed after departing from Cyprus.
"Thank you for your courage and steadfastness," she told Siniora, who has repeatedly pleaded for an immediate ceasefire.
On her way to the region, Rice said she was seeking a "sustainable" ceasefire in a war that has cost 373 dead in Lebanon and at least 37 Israeli lives in nearly two weeks.
A US official in Rice's party said she would announce aid for Lebanon, where Israeli bombing has displaced half a million people and wrecked installations worth an estimated US$1 billion.
Rice has no plans to meet Hezbollah leaders, but was due to see Shiite Muslim Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a pro-Syrian politician who has acted as a link between the Islamist group's leaders and Siniora since the war erupted.
Ground assault
Meanwhile, heavy fighting erupted yesterday as Israeli ground forces pushed further into Lebanon, entering another Hezbollah stronghold, and 10 Israeli soldiers were wounded, the military said.
An Israeli helicopter also crashed in northern Israel near the Lebanese border after hitting an electrical wire while making an emergency landing, causing two casualties and starting a large brush fire atop a hill, the army said, adding that the crash was caused by a technical problem and not enemy fire.
Following an intense artillery barrage, Israeli troops took control of a hilltop in Bint Jbail, the Lebanese town where Hezbollah's leader had made a defiant speech after Israel ended its occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000. However, troops had not taken the town itself, military officials said.
Steady gunfire
Nearly constant gunfire and explosions could be heard in southern Lebanon from the Israeli side of the border, and large plumes of gray smoke rose over the area. Hezbollah guerrillas were firing mortars into northern Israeli and anti-tank missiles at Israeli forces, the army said.
It said at least one Israeli tank was hit by heavy Hezbollah fire and that 10 soldiers were wounded in the fighting. The army denied Arab media reports that five tanks were destroyed.
The military said it captured two Hezbollah guerrillas, and Israeli media said attacks by Israel's air force had caused some Hezbollah casualties.
The army said it was expanding its ground operation in Lebanon, which had been limited during the two-week offensive to pinpoint operations near the border -- a policy that military analysts said may well be insufficient to achieve Israel's goal of pushing Hezbollah back and destroying its ability to attack Israel.
Two more rockets were fired into Israel yesterday, landing in the northern town of Kiryat Shmona, rescue officials said. No casualties or damage were reported.
Ceasefire deal
The US, which blames Hezbollah and its allies in Syria and Iran for the crisis, wants any ceasefire deal to remove the threat to Israel posed by the Shiite group.
"We believe that a ceasefire is urgent," Rice told reporters during her flight to the Middle East. "It is important to have conditions that will make it also sustainable."
Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who wants to swap the two soldiers for Lebanese and Palestinians in Israeli jails, said Israel's assaults would not stop cross-border rocket fire.
"I assure you that this goal will not be achieved," he said.
Israel, after initially dismissing the idea, now says it would be willing for an international force to dislodge Hezbollah from south Lebanon and take control of Lebanon's border with Syria to stop the guerrillas from re-arming.
"It doesn't matter who runs the mission, it's just important that the mission is accomplished," Israeli Vice-Premier Shimon Peres told Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper.
But just as Hezbollah has fought Israeli attempts to drive it from the south, it would surely resist military coercion by any international force, assuming one could be assembled.
Several EU countries are ready to contribute to a force for Lebanon but problems remain in ensuring it can fulfil its mission, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said.
"It's a real possibility. It is not an easy force to deploy but we have been working since Wednesday to try to construct a concept that would make it possible to deploy under the umbrella of the UN Security Council," Solana said in Brussels.
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