Sporadic fighting erupted today between the Lebanese army and Sunni Islamist militants holed up in a battered Palestinian camp, with no sign of an end to the 10-day stand-off.
The clashes at the Mediterranean camp in north Lebanon occurred while scores of Palestinian refugees in the Beddawi camp, who had fled from the nearby Nahr al-Bared, protested demanding a ceasefire to let them return home.
The deadly clashes between Lebanese troops and al Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam militants have punctured a fragile truce, enforced last week, to allow the camp's 40,000 refugees to flee due to lack of food, water and power.
One Lebanese soldier was killed in clashes early today, bringing the total death toll in Lebanon's worst internal fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war to at least 79 people - 34 soldiers, 27 militants and 18 civilians.
The Lebanese government has demanded the militants surrender and face justice but Palestinian leaders mediating in the stand-off say the Fatah al-Islam group are refusing to hand over their fighters.
The Palestinian leaders' plan also includes a permanent cease-fire in the camp, the pullback of Fatah al-Islam fighters, and the deployment of a Palestinian force to oversee the truce.
"There is no progress in the efforts to find a solution. There is a need to move quickly but that is not happening," a Palestinian mediator said.
He said the crisis could deepen if it not resolved soon because the militants and their sleeper cells "will get the chance to catch their breath and launch attacks elsewhere. The Lebanese government must find a way out".
The government has played down an immediate military solution to the stand-off and is reluctant to pursue the option of the army's storming the camp as it could trigger violence at the other 11 refugee camps in the country.
The army is banned from entering the camps, home to some 400,000 Palestinians, under a 1969 Arab deal.
Members of Lebanon's anti-Syrian cabinet have described Fatah al-Islam as a tool of Syrian intelligence, though Damascus denies any links to the group.
"The first concern for the government and army is to remove the Palestinian civilians from inside the camp. After that the army will deal with Fatah al-Islam," Saad al-Hariri, head of the ruling government coalition bloc, told the pan-Arab al-Sharq al-Awsatnewspaper.
"The priority now is to remove the civilians and keep them away from danger. There will be no negotiations with those terrorists that came to Lebanon to carry out the orders of the Syrian intelligence."
The Lebanese authorities say Fatah al-Islam includes Arabs from Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Tunisia, Syria and Lebanon.