Lebanon's prime minister is seeking aid pledges worth $500 million at an international donor conference today and said none of the funds would be distributed by Hizbullah.
Sweden has organised the conference so donors can pledge funds for urgent relief needs such as house building and clearing unexploded bombs, ahead of a bigger gathering later this year on longer-term reconstruction efforts.
"Lebanon, which only seven weeks ago was full of hope and promise, has been torn to shreds by destruction, displacement, dispossession, desolation, and death," Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told the conference.
He said direct damage to infrastructure and indirect losses such as the loss of tourism amounted to billions of dollars. The government has previously put the figure at $3.6 billion.
Mr Siniora said that if Israel did not withdraw from all its positions in Lebanon, it would undermine recovery efforts. He also called for an end to Israel's embargo on his country.
The European Union has already pledged €42 million for short-term needs. Some 60 governments and organisations are attending the meeting in the Swedish capital, which Sweden has said aimed to raise a further $500 million.
Ireland today pledged a further €2 million in aid for relief efforts in Lebanon and Gaza. Minister for Development Co-operation Conor Lenihan said Ireland has already provided €2 million in support of Lebanon and Gaza since the onset of the current crisis.
The conference took place amid growing Western worries that cash handouts from Hizbullah to those whose homes were destroyed or damaged in the 34-day war with Israel will entrench the guerrillas' popularity.
Mr Siniora played down any involvement by Hizbollah in the rebuilding process from the funds raised in Stockholm. "The conference is being called to assist the Lebanese government, all will be channelled through the government," he told a news conference.
"This idea that it will be siphoned one way or another to Hizbollah is a fallacy."
Israel began a bombardment of Lebanon after Hizbullah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. The war killed nearly 1,200 people in Lebanon, mainly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers.