Peacekeeping idea endorsed, with few details

WASHINGTON -- The United States and its European and Arab allies called yesterday for international troops to be deployed to southern Lebanon to help bring an end to deadly fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, now in its third week.

But the four-hour meeting in Rome -- in which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and several foreign ministers participated -- failed to hammer out many details about the proposed force, and disagreements remained over the force's mandate and when it would be deployed.

Annan told his fellow participants yesterday that the new international force could assist with humanitarian supplies and, in the long term, help the Lebanese Army take control of the border area with Israel. But US and Israeli officials have expressed hope that the new force would take on far more dangerous responsibilities, including disarming Hezbollah and keeping a buffer zone between the militant group and northern Israel.

The largest disagreements yesterday were over whether the international community should call on Israel to halt its attack on Lebanon, sparked by the July 12 cross-border kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah. Many countries see a cease-fire as a key first step to deploying an international force.

France, which leads the current 2,000-strong UN monitoring force in southern Lebanon, has said that the international community must call for an end to the fighting before deploying a larger, better-equipped international force. French officials have expressed a willingness to lead a new force, but say they will not do so unless all parties -- including Hezbollah -- have agreed to welcome the force on the ground.

``France has some serious doubts about the possibility, which some have put forward, of deploying an interim force immediately after the halting of the hostilities and without a preliminary political agreement," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told his counterparts in Rome, according to a transcript of the speech. ``[An international force] must follow and not precede a political agreement, the key to any lasting solution, and one which must be concluded between all the parties involved."

Spain and Ireland have also indicated they would consider contributing troops under similar conditions, according to a European Union diplomat.

But Rice has said that more diplomatic work needs to be done before calling on Israel to halt the attacks to ensure that any cease-fire is long-lasting.

``Unfortunately, this is a region that has had too many broken cease-fires," Rice told reporters in Rome.

At Rice's urging, the 15 countries that met in Rome yesterday -- which included Canada, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan -- stopped short of calling for an immediate end to hostilities that have killed at least 423 Lebanese and 51 Israelis.

Instead, they issued a joint statement that said they would ``work immediately to reach with the utmost urgency a cease-fire," wording that analysts say gives Israel more diplomatic cover to continue its ground operation against Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon.

Mark Schneider, vice president of the International Crisis Group, a global research group on conflict resolution, said that Rice's policy ``has it backwards."

``You need the cease-fire first, then you need to move on the other issues that need to be negotiated, like . . . steps for a multinational force," he said. ``You are not going to get an agreement from Hezbollah to allow an international force to come in while there's still fighting."

Yesterday, at the meeting in Rome, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora of Lebanon made an impassioned plea for an end to the violence, to provide an opening for negotiations that could build a lasting peace with Israel, which he said would come after Israel returned prisoners and gave back disputed land known as Shebaa Farms -- key Hezbollah demands.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, meeting with his Cabinet in Jerusalem, said yesterday that Israel planned to establish a Hezbollah-free zone in southern Lebanon of just over a mile wide, until an international force arrived that could take control of the area.

Yet, assembling such a force under a United Nations mandate will take weeks, if not months, UN officials said.

They said the task has been made more difficult after four unarmed UN observers in southern Lebanon were killed Tuesday by Israeli fire.

Still, an aide to Annan based in New York said that the secretary general planned to ``get the ball rolling" next week by convening a meeting of potential contributors of troops. The killings did not appear to sway Annan's proposal to expand the current UN Interim Force for Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, to create the new international force.

UNIFIL, established in 1978 to monitor the departure of Israel troops from the area, has been caught in the crossfire over the past two weeks. A week ago, two international employees died from an Israeli missile strike on their apartment building.

US officials have made it clear that they don't see UNIFIL as strong enough to police the border now. US officials said they were confident that they could assemble another force, despite the reluctance of the United States and Britain to contribute troops.

``There will, in the end, be an international force, because all of the key players want one. Lebanon needs one. There is one there now and it's obvious that they need a stronger one," David C. Welch, assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, told reporters Tuesday night.

Another area of disagreement yesterday was the role that Iran and Syria -- Hezbollah's biggest backers -- should play in resolving the conflict. The two countries were not invited to the Rome conference, and Rice has accused them of creating the problem by arming Hezbollah.

But Annan said they should be seen as part of the solution.

In Tehran, Iranian officials and analysts said yesterday that the meeting is not likely to be productive without Iran and Syria.

``They should have invited all the countries from the region if they really wanted peace," said Hamid Reza Asafi, spokesman for Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

``The US needs the help of countries like Iran," said Amir Mohebian, a conservative politician who is seen as being close to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader. ``If you remove the key figures, then you don't want to get a result."

Anne Barnard of the Globe staff contributed to this report from Tehran.