Key UN Security Council members have agreed on a resolution to end Israel's month-old war with Hizbullah and there were hopes yesterday of an early vote.
But Israeli officials said they were still gearing up for an expansion of the army's ground offensive in Lebanon, although it could be halted at any time if a resolution was passed.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will ask his cabinet tomorrow to accept a UN resolution for ending the Lebanon war, but will press an offensive against Hizbullah until then, a politicalsource said.
The source said Mr Olmert, defence minister Amir Peretz and foreign minister Tzipi Livni agreed to the resolution presented yesterday following last-minute changes to the text.
The revised US-French Security Council draft resolution authorises up to 15,000 UN troops to monitor a withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from southern Lebanon and help the Lebanese army enforce a truce.
The draft calls for a "full cessation of hostilities" and tells the Hizbullah militia to stop all attacks immediately and for Israel to end "all offensive operations". After fighting stops, Israel is to withdraw all its forces from southern Lebanon at the earliest possible time. Lebanon is to deploy its armed forces throughout southern Lebanon, which Hizbullah controls, as the Israeli army pulls out.
The timing of Israel's withdrawal and the nature of the international force sent into the area had been the main points of contention that held up a deal this week.
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice flew to New York in anticipation of a vote on ending the war, in which at least 1,033 people in Lebanon and 123 Israelis have been killed.
French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy was also en route to the United Nations.
Parallel to the diplomatic developments the war on the ground continued unabated. Israel bombed a bridge near Lebanon's northern border with Syria, killing 12 people and injuring 18 others. The aircraft returned 15 minutes after the initial bombing and attacked rescue workers, a frequent occurrence in this war.
Israeli aircraft bombed two electricity transformers in south Lebanon last night, plunging the port city of Tyre into darkness, security sources said.
Three more Lebanese were killed in other Israeli air raids. One Israeli soldier was reported killed in fighting in the south. Hizbullah fired more than 55 rockets into northern Israel, injuring seven.
Haret Hreik and Shiyyah, suburbs of Beirut which were specifically threatened in leaflets dropped late on Thursday, were heavily bombed at dawn yesterday and repeatedly throughout the day.
Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora met the US assistant secretary of state, David Welch, to elaborate on Lebanon's offer to send 15,000 troops to the south. Mr Welch also met the Shia Muslim speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri, who represents Hizbullah in negotiations.
In a television address this week, the Hizbullah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said: "The deployment of the Lebanese army is the best and most appropriate alternative to the deployment of international forces, whose chain of command and mission we know nothing about."
Mr Nasrallah also threatened "to transform our precious land of the south into a cemetery for the Zionist invaders".