MIDDLE EAST: The US and France have inched closer to a deal on a UN resolution seeking an end to the fighting between Israel and Lebanon, as the first step towards a political settlement of the conflict.
Once they reach agreement, possibly during the weekend, a UN Security Council vote could be held within 24 hours. However with fighting raging, an end to hostilities still appears questionable, despite regular contacts by Washington and Paris with Israel and Lebanon.
US ambassador John Bolton said after several hours of talks yesterday with French UN ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sablière that progress had been made and a text was being sent back to Washington and Paris for further review.
"There are still some issues that we have not resolved, but I think we have come a little bit closer this morning. We will keep working on it," Mr Bolton said.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Seán McCormack said: "I think we are very close on coming up with a final draft text that could be shared among other council members. We are prepared to work through the weekend."
Ghanaian UN ambassador Nana Effah-Apenteng, this month's council president, said there was a possibility the council would meet over the weekend, depending on the negotiations.
"Council members will do whatever is needed to accommodate negotiations," he said after it received a briefing on the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon.
The negotiations, based on a draft from France, centre on specific demands for a ceasefire and whether only offensive operations should be outlawed or the resolution should call for a "suspension of hostilities".
The US also wants monitoring of Lebanon's border with Syria to make sure Hizbullah is not supplied with new arms, diplomats close to the talks said.
There is a dispute about how and when Lebanon's disputed borders with Syria should be delineated.
France's draft resolution calls for existing UN peacekeepers and Lebanon's army to monitor the truce, while the US favours the Israeli army staying in southern Lebanon until the arrival of an international force, which France may lead.
Also unclear is when and by whom Hizbullah guerrillas would be disarmed. Its chief spokesman said on Thursday that Hizbullah would not approve a cessation of hostilities until Israeli troops were out of Lebanon.
A second resolution is envisaged a week or two after the first is adopted, setting down conditions for a permanent ceasefire and authorising an international force.
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice late on Thursday predicted a deal within days.
Dr Rice told CNN fighting should stop immediately but some steps would have to occur over a longer period "in order not to have a return to the status quo ante and just a ceasefire that, like so many ceasefires in the Middle East, falls apart practically the minute that it's in place".
In London, British prime minister Tony Blair has delayed his holiday in an attempt to agree a UN resolution for Lebanon, his office said.
Mr Blair had faced criticism from the media and members of his Labour Party for planning his holiday as fighting rages.
"Basically he's delayed to try and do further work to try and get this UN deal together and he thinks the next few days will be critical," a spokesman said. He expected Mr Blair to postpone his departure by several days.
Mr Blair spoke on the telephone yesterday to Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, French president Jacques Chirac, Italian prime minister Romano Prodi and Swedish prime minister Goran Persson. - (Reuters)