UN deaths put pressure on Rome talks for ceasefire

An Israeli personnel carrier crosses the Lebanese border. Picture / Reuters

BEIRUT - Israel's killing of four UN observers piled pressure on an international conference in Rome on Wednesday to end a 15-day-old Middle East conflict, as Hizbollah vowed not to accept any "humiliating" truce terms.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan demanded Israel investigate the "apparently deliberate targeting" of a UN post in southern Lebanon where an Israeli air strike killed the four UN military observers on Tuesday.

Israel, waging a military offensive in Lebanon against Hizbollah guerrillas, announced it would hold a probe and expressed regret at the deaths but said it was shocked Annan had suggested the observers may have been deliberately targeted.

A Chinese national was among the four observers killed, China's official Xinhua news agency reported. It said the other three were from Finland, Austria and Canada.

UN officials said the air strike had caused the building housing the observers to collapse and that rescue teams had been sent to retrieve the bodies from the rubble.

"(This) attack on a long established and clearly marked UN post at Khiam occurred despite personal assurances given to me by (Israeli) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that UN positions would be spared Israeli fire," Annan said in a statement.

NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark condemned the killings this afternoon.

She said: "The deaths of non-combatants and particularly UN staff attempting to keep peace, is deplorable. It is a tragedy that these attacks are claiming the lives of those sent to keep the peace."

With international concern already high over civilian casualties, Lebanon and its Arab allies will plead at the Rome talks- due to start at 8pm NZT- for an immediate truce but Washington says a lasting solution needs to be agreed first.

Israel, with apparent US approval, has said it would press on with its offensive. It also said it planned to set up a "security strip" in Lebanon until international forces deploy.

Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, whose group triggered the war by capturing two Israeli soldiers in a July 12 cross-border raid, said: "We cannot accept any condition humiliating to our country, our people or our resistance," said

The war, in which 418 people in Lebanon and 42 Israelis have been killed, was entering a new phase, Nasrallah said in a televised address.

"In the new period, our bombardment will not be limited to Haifa," he said, suggesting his guerrillas would hit towns deeper inside Israel. Hizbollah has hit Haifa, Israel's third largest city 35 km (20 miles) south of Lebanon, for the first time with rockets.

Arab leaders and Annan want the Rome conference to call a quick halt to the conflict but US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has visited Beirut and Jerusalem, says she prefers to get conditions right for "a durable solution".

Israel and Syria, Hizbollah's main ally along with Iran, have not been invited to the Rome conference.

Hizbollah wants a truce to be followed by talks on swapping the two Israelis for Arab and Lebanese prisoners in Israel. The United States demands Hizbollah free the soldiers unconditionally and pull back from the border before disarming.

Israel, the United States and European countries agree on the need to see Hizbollah disarmed, but some of the Europeans think this should not be a precondition for any peace deal.

The Rome meeting will also seek agreement on what kind of international force could be sent into southern Lebanon - a mission fraught with danger unless Hizbollah consents.

- REUTERS