The United States, France and Britain hope for a UN Security Council resolution within a week that would call for a truce and perhaps beef up UN peacekeepers in Lebanon until a more robust force can be formed, diplomats and UN officials said yesterday.
The US and France, council diplomats said, are rapidly working out differences on an initial resolution that would also call for the creation of a buffer zone and the disarming of Hizbullah guerrillas.
But Paris has made it clear it will not join an international force without a truce and an agreement in principle on the political framework of a long-term peace deal by Israel, Hizbullah and the Beirut government.
Once fighting has ended, negotiations would begin at the United Nations on a second resolution setting out a permanent ceasefire that all combatants could accept.
That resolution would also authorise an international force in southern Lebanon and set out terms for a sustainable ceasefire, one negotiator said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy of the talks.
However, the other two permanent council members with veto power - Russia, which has close ties to Syria, and China - have not yet been involved in the negotiations. A key issue is whether all sides would accept a truce.
The US had anticipated a Security Council meeting at foreign minister level next week, but no date has been set.
Meanwhile France, often mentioned as a leader of an international force, has rejected a meeting of potential troop contributors set for today at the United Nations that would discuss the details of a mission.
"It is important to have this political settlement before having the force deployed. So it is premature to have such a meeting. It's a question of timing," said French UN ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sablière.
US ambassador John Bolton played down differences between Washington and Paris, particularly on an immediate call for a truce. But he said there were differences over "the nature of a cessation of hostilities and how to make it permanent".
"What we are talking about now is something that will certainly set up the framework for the larger political foundation for a sustainable ceasefire," Mr Bolton said. "But the precise way that this will be done, how many resolutions will be involved, remains to be seen. Things are changing on the ground also."
Among the options under consideration, UN officials said earlier, were beefing up the 2,000-strong UN force already in in Lebanon and supplementing it with a rapid-reaction force that as yet has no volunteers.
Mr Bolton said one alternative under discussion was "two different kinds of forces in two different kinds of periods, because the situation at the outset when a force might come in could well be substantially different over a six-month period and a longer term".
Another point for discussion was how to make sure during a truce period that more arms were not being shipped to Hizbullah through Syria, Mr Bolton said.
Meanwhile, European governments are reaching out to Hizbullah's foreign backers, Iran and Syria, in an attempt to engage them in a solution to the Lebanon war by recognising their importance for regional stability.
But beyond making Syrian and Iranian leaders feel respected, it is not clear what the Europeans can offer to persuade Damascus or Tehran to lean on Hizbullah.
Spanish, French and German foreign ministers have all been in touch in recent days with Syrian and Iranian diplomats and ministers.