Israel rejects ceasefire calls

A U.N. official said a meeting scheduled for Monday on a new peacekeeping force for Lebanon had been delayed "until there is more political clarity" on the path ahead in the 20-day-old war.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said there would be no ceasefire in the war until the threat from Hizbollah rocket attacks was removed and captured Israeli soldiers were freed.

"The fighting continues. There is no ceasefire and there will not be any ceasefire in the coming days," Olmert told local officials, drawing sustained applause.

Civilians fled battered villages in southern Lebanon after Israel agreed partially to halt air strikes for 48 hours, and aid convoys headed into the area to deliver supplies.

Rescue workers found 28 bodies buried for days in destroyed buildings in three south Lebanon villages, the Red Cross said.

The Israeli military said it had launched a new ground incursion into Lebanon in the Aita al-Shaab area. Hizbollah said its guerrillas were fiercely resisting the advance.

Air raids continued despite Israel's announcement of a partial 48-hour suspension of bombing after an international outcry over the deaths of at least 54 civilians, most of them children, in an air strike on the village of Qana on Sunday.

Israel also said it was giving a 24-hour window to allow aid workers to reach the worst hit areas and residents to flee.

Civilians drove toward the southern port city of Tyre, 20 km (13 miles) north of the border, white flags fluttering from their cars, buses and pickup trucks.

But the United Nations said access had not improved.

"Let's be clear about this. There was fighting today in south Lebanon and there were Hizbollah rocket attacks. We don't have a cessation of hostilities and we don't have a cessation of aerial bombardments," spokesman Khaled Mansour said.

Israeli jets bombarded targets in the south Lebanon hills and artillery shells hit two villages. A Lebanese soldier died and three were wounded when an air strike hit their vehicle.

At the main border crossing into Lebanon from Syria, Israeli drones fired at two trucks and a third truck was destroyed by a warplane, security sources said. Four Lebanese customs officials and the three drivers were wounded.

Hizbollah said its guerrillas hit an Israeli warship with rockets off the coast of the south Lebanese port city of Tyre on Monday, prompting celebratory gunfire to ring out in Beirut. But an Israeli security source said no warship had been hit.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said a ceasefire could be forged this week. But Israel said the war was not over.

"If an immediate ceasefire is declared, the extremists will rear their heads anew," Defense Minister Amir Peretz told a heated parliamentary debate in which four Israeli Arab lawmakers were escorted out for heckling. One called Peretz a murderer.

Despite its pause in air raids from early on Monday, Israel said it may still use aerial strikes to target Hizbollah leaders and rocket launchers and back up ground operations.

Olmert said a ceasefire could be implemented immediately after an international force arrived in Lebanon.

But French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said an international force could be deployed only once a ceasefire and a clear political road map had been agreed. France and Germany welcomed Israel's suspension of most air strikes but said it was not enough. Russia also demanded an immediate ceasefire.

But the United States, which blames Hizbollah for the war, is refusing to back calls for an immediate halt to the fighting. President Bush repeated that he wanted a sustainable end to the violence.

After the Qana raid Lebanon called off planned talks with Rice, telling her to secure an unconditional ceasefire first.

"As I head back to Washington, I take with me an emerging consensus on what is necessary for both an urgent ceasefire and lasting settlement. I am convinced we can achieve both this week," Rice told reporters in Jerusalem.

Hizbollah fired two shells into the northern Israeli border town of Kiryat Shmona on Monday, but nobody was wounded.

It was the first Hizbollah bombardment of Israel since Sunday evening -- a distinct lull compared to the scores of rockets they had previously fired daily.

/www.reuters.com/