Britain hopes a peace plan for Lebanon can emerge within days that could lead to a cease-fire, but only after details are worked out for an international force, Prime Minister Tony Blair said today.
His spokesman suggested progress could be made at a conference in Rome on Wednesday.
Blair has been under political pressure at home for joining US President George W. Bush as the only top Western leaders not to publicly call for an immediate cease-fire.
Blair said that did not mean he was indifferent to the deaths of civilians, but that a cease-fire would only work if conditions were first put in place to ensure both sides respected it.
"I don't want the killing to go on. I want the killing to stop. Now. It's got to stop on both sides. And it's not going to stop on both sides without a plan to make it stop," he told a London news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Blair said his plan included an end to shooting, the return of kidnapped Israeli soldiers and an international force as a "buffer", a proposal he first made during a meeting of leaders of the G8 group of industrial countries in Russia a week ago.
"That is the plan we've been working on, and we've been working on it since the G8. If someone's got a better plan I'd like to hear it," Blair said.