Israeli force advances in southeast Lebanon

MARJAYOUN, Lebanon - Hizbollah guerrillas fought Israeli troops pushing towards the Shi'ite Muslim town of Khiam in southeast Lebanon on Thursday, though an Israeli cabinet minister said plans for a deeper ground assault were on hold.

Hizbollah unleashed a score of rockets on northern Israel, killing two people, including a toddler, medics said.

In Beirut, an Israeli helicopter fired a missile at a disused radio tower in the heart of the capital, wounding two people, security sources said.

It was the deepest Israeli strike into the Lebanese capital in a month-old campaign against Hizbollah guerrillas. Another missile hit a radio tower in the Christian town of Amsheet, north of Beirut.

Israeli troops headed towards Khiam as artillery and air strikes pounded Hizbollah positions in the area, residents said.

The fighting intensified even though Israel's tourism minister said plans for an expanded ground offensive, approved on Wednesday, had been put on hold to allow more time for US-led diplomatic efforts to bear fruit.

The UN Security Council has been divided over a resolution aimed at halting the fighting and stabilising the area with the deployment of an international force to back the Lebanese army. No vote seems imminent.

"There is a certain diplomatic process under way," said minister Yitzhak Herzog, a member of Israel's security cabinet.

"We can allow a little more time to see if there's a possibility for a diplomatic process."

Israeli infantry advanced through the southeastern Christian towns of Marjayoun and Qlaiah overnight virtually unopposed. They were followed by tanks that drew intense Hizbollah fire.

"I can see two tanks burning some 500 metres from Marjayoun," one resident told Reuters by telephone.

A third tank arrived later and removed several casualties, he said, adding that Hizbollah fighters were raining rocket and mortar fire on the Israeli force between Marjayoun and Khiam.

An Israeli air raid killed a motorcyclist near Tyre on Thursday. Another strike killed a civilian in the Bekaa Valley.

The war has cost the lives of at least 1,011 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 118 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

Herzog made clear a push by ground forces to the Litani River, some 20 km inside Lebanon, remained an option.

"If there won't be a diplomatic solution, there will be a need to remove this threat," he said, referring to more than 3300 Hizbollah rockets fired into northern Israel since hostilities erupted on July 12.

An Israeli military source said the incursion in the eastern sector aimed to stop Hizbollah firing rockets at the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona from the Khiam area.

Witnesses said Israeli soldiers had imposed a curfew in Marjayoun and Qlaiah, which they had previously not entered in the four-week-old war with Hizbollah's Shi'ite fighters.

A priest used the church's public address system to tell people to stay indoors and away from windows, residents said.

"They (the Israelis) are firing at anyone who is even trying to look out of a window," one resident said.

Hizbollah said in a statement it had destroyed 11 Israeli tanks, killing or wounding their crews, in fighting in the area. It said it had knocked out two more two tanks near the village of Ainata to the west. Israel's army had no immediate comment.

Marjayoun, a town of 3000, served as the headquarters of the pro-Israeli South Lebanon Army militia during Israel's 22-year occupation of the region that ended in 2000.

Hours before the overnight Israeli advance, Hizbollah's chief vowed to turn the south into a graveyard for the invaders.

But for the first time, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah also said Hizbollah backed a Lebanese government decision to send 15,000 troops to the border if that would promote a peaceful solution.

"If everyone sees that deploying the army will help find a way out politically that would result in the halting of aggression ... this for us is a national and honourable way out," he said in a televised address.

Hizbollah, which has controlled the south since Israeli occupation troops left in 2000, has long resisted international pressure on Lebanon to deploy the army to the south.

Lebanon wants an immediate ceasefire and a swift Israeli withdrawal. Israel says it will fight on until foreign troops and the Lebanese army move in - a stance backed by Washington, which fears a security vacuum that could let Hizbollah regroup.

France, which may lead the foreign force, does not want it to deploy before a ceasefire and a political agreement.

- REUTERS