MIDDLE EAST: US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice did not give Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert a deadline for ending Israel's military offensive against Hizbullah in Lebanon when they met in Jerusalem yesterday, and the two agreed on the need to disarm the Shia organisation and deploy an international force in south Lebanon, Israeli officials said.
Meanwhile, Hizbullah continued to fire dozens of rockets at towns in northern Israel. A 15-year-old Arab girl was killed in the northern village of Maghar when a rocket smashed into her home in the Muslim section of the village, which is also home to Druze.
"I have no desire to be back in a few weeks, or three months or six months when once again extremists have decided to use their advantages to destroy the peace," Dr Rice said, explaining why she opposed a quick-fix unconditional ceasefire, which she said would simply return the situation to "the status quo ante".
In the run-up to her visit, she has repeatedly stated that a ceasefire deal has to address the root causes of the conflict - a reference to Hizbullah and its backers, Iran and Syria. "I have no doubt there are those who wish to strangle a democratic and sovereign Lebanon in its crib," she said yesterday.
Mr Olmert, who assured the secretary of state that Israel would allow airlifts of aid to Lebanon, gave no hint that a cessation of hostilities might be near.
In fact, the prime minister said Israel was "determined to carry on this fight against Hizbullah" and that his government "will not hesitate to take severe measures against those who are aiming thousands of rockets and missiles against innocent civilians for the sole purpose of killing them".
Tourism minister Yitzhak Herzog said it had been agreed at the meeting that Israel would "continue its military operation in order to weaken Hizbullah".
After meeting Dr Rice later yesterday, defence minister Amir Peretz said Israel was planning to police a "security zone" in south Lebanon until a multinational peacekeeping force, with "enforcement capability", could be deployed in the area and Hizbullah could be kept away from the border.
Mr Peretz did not say whether the zone would be patrolled by troops or whether Israel would use air strikes and artillery fire to enforce the no-go area, but considering Israel's bloody 18-year occupation of a similar security strip in Lebanon, it is unlikely there would be much public or political support for even a semi-permanent reoccupation.
Dr Rice will try to promote the idea of a multinational peacekeeping force today in Rome, where she will attend a conference along with European leaders and leaders from pro-western Arab states.
While several European countries have expressed support for the idea, none has volunteered its troops for such a mission, which could require the use of force in keeping Hizbullah out of south Lebanon. Some Israeli commentators have questioned whether such a force would have the will to enforce its authority, especially when taking into account the difficulties Israel, with all its firepower, is encountering in trying to push Hizbullah away from its northern border.
"It will have to be an armed multinational force," said foreign ministry director Gen Aharon Avramovich. "It will have to be strong and it will have to be an interventionary force."
Israeli troops yesterday surrounded the town of Bint Jbail, a Hizbullah stronghold in south Lebanon. Military officials said eight soldiers were injured in firefights, while they estimated that dozens of Hizbullah fighters in the town had been hit.
Dr Rice also had talks yesterday with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, assuring him that despite the conflict in Lebanon, the US had not forgotten the plight of the Palestinians and that it was still working toward "bringing a two-state solution to the people of Palestine and the people of Israel".
Mr Abbas called for a Palestinian-Israeli ceasefire, which he hopes will end a month of fighting that erupted in late June when Israel launched an incursion into Gaza after Palestinian militants abducted an Israeli soldier.
A senior Hizbullah official Mahmoud Komati, deputy chief of the Hizbullah politburo, said yesterday in Lebanon that the guerrillas did not expect Israel to react so strongly to its capture of two Israeli soldiers this month.