MIDDLE EAST: US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice piled pressure on Hizbullah to comply with a proposed UN call for a truce yesterday.
French and American diplomats at the security council overcame weeks of differences at the weekend to agree on a draft resolution, demanding a "full cessation of hostilities" but requiring Israel only to halt "offensive operations".
A vote was expected today or tomorrow, but the plans met with immediate opposition from the speaker of Lebanon's parliament, along with Syria and Iran, Hizbullah's main backers in the region.
"When this UN security council resolution is passed, we're going to know who really did want to stop the violence and who didn't," Ms Rice warned, speaking in Crawford, Texas, where president George Bush is on holiday at his ranch. She reiterated Washington's insistence that a cessation of hostilities would only be the first step towards a longer-term settlement. "We're trying to deal with a problem that has been festering and brewing in Lebanon now for years and years and years," she said.
The speaker of the Lebanese parliament rejected the 6,500-word text thrashed out by Washington and Paris.
"If Israel has not won the war, but still gets this, what would have happened had they won?" asked Nabih Berri, who has been negotiating on behalf of Hizbullah.
French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said obtaining Lebanese and Arab support for the plan was his government's priority.
The draft's demand that Israel halts "offensive operations" leaves open the option of pursuing defensive activities - a definition that could be interpreted not just as permitting a response to Hizbullah attacks, but also pre-emptive action. "If we see there are launchers who are going to fire Katyusha [ rockets] at Israel, we have the right to respond," said the country's justice minister, Haim Ramon, though he broadly welcomed the UN text.
The draft resolution was the result of sacrifices on both sides at the security council, which had been deadlocked for weeks because of disagreements between the US and France. If the text is passed, Paris will have won on the basic structure: a two-part process, consisting of a halt to violence, followed soon after by a second resolution to approve an international peacekeeping force. Any such force will be led by France.
However, Washington, which has staunchly supported Israel's position, gained crucial concessions - above all the terminology on "offensive operations", and the absence of any mention of troop withdrawal.
Lebanese diplomats made a last-ditch effort to overturn that yesterday, circulating a proposed amendment calling on Israel to hand over its positions to the Lebanese army - using the UN force already in place there as a middleman - as soon as fighting stopped. The amendment would also have required Israel to withdraw from the disputed Sheba'a Farms area.