Angered by US stalling, France circulated proposals at the UN which could form the basis of a binding resolution. The proposals will be discussed in private today after Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, briefs the security council on the findings of an emergency UN mission to the region. Terje Roed-Larsen, a member of the mission, said yesterday there should be no more delays. "We're in a hurry. It has to happen fast," he said. "There is serious work to be done in order to reach conclusions, which will be presented to the parties."

The mission is expected to propose creating a buffer zone on the Israeli-Lebanese border, a beefed-up international force, deployment of the Lebanese army into the south and a pullback by Hizbullah as well as the release of captured Israeli soldiers as part of possible prisoner exchange.

A French diplomatic source said: "The security council cannot remain inactive. There has been a general call for the UN to act from the Group of Eight, from the Arab League and the European Union - they are all calling for it. France is taking the lead because of its historic role in Lebanon, and because it holds the presidency of the security council."

The French move has tacit support from Russia and China, which have criticised Israel's response to attacks by Hizbullah. But it will cause problems with the US and Britain. A security council source characterised the initial US response as a mixture of "nervousness and irritation".

Louise Arbour, the UN's high commissioner for human rights, said yesterday the scale of killing in Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories could constitute war crimes. The obligation to protect civilians during hostilities was laid down in international criminal law "which defines war crimes and crimes against humanity", she said in a statement.

"The scale of the killings in the region, and their predictability, could engage the personal criminal responsibility of those involved, particularly those in a position of command and control."

Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, was asked repeatedly whether the US was deliberately delaying diplomatic action in order to give Israel another week to inflict maximum damage on Hizbullah. He denied this was the case.

Asked why George Bush was not pursuing more active peace making by phoning leaders such as Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, Mr Snow replied: "Because the track record stinks."

Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, met Mr Bush yesterday to discuss a planned trip to Israel, Lebanon and possibly Egypt over the next few days. But the White House has blocked calls, repeated yesterday by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, for an immediate cessation of hostilities by both sides.

Last week the US vetoed a proposed resolution on Israeli actions in Gaza, sponsored by Arab countries. John Bolton, Washington's ambassador to the UN, has argued against any security council action before Ms Rice returns from the region.

Responding to the French proposals, Mr Bolton said yesterday: "The notion that you just declare a ceasefire and act as if that's going to solve the problem I think is simplistic. Among other things ... I'd like to know when there's been an effective ceasefire between a terrorist organisation and a state in the past."

Since the schism with the US over Iraq in 2003, France has slowly rebuilt relations with Washington. They cooperated closely over last year's withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon. But the latest crisis is straining their collaboration.

The French proposals, circulated among the other 14 security council members, call for "a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire", and express "extreme concern at the escalation of hostilities ... and at the deteriorating humanitarian situation and widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure".

The daily Okaz said that Riyadh and Paris would seek to formulate a "joint position to end the bloodshed, shield Lebanon from destruction and rebuild the Lebanese economy."

Saudi Arabia and France played a key role in assisting the
reconstruction of Lebanon in the wake of its 1975-1990 civil war, a period which also witnessed a full-scale Israeli invasion in 1982.

Lebanon has already suffered losses of more than half a billion dollars and seen its crucial tourist season wrecked since Israel launched a devastating assault a week ago which has targeted the country's infrastructure.

Saudi Arabia has urged international action to end hostilities between Israel and Shiite Hezbollah militants, while France has suggested ideas that could form the basis of a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire.

France has also indicated it wants to help oil-rich Saudi Arabia "preserve its external security, whether in terms of training personnel, cooperation between the armed forces or the modernization of its equipment," Chirac said.

The visit of Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, who is also defense minister, might lead to the signing of defense contracts, according to French sources.

The French presidential palace said Tuesday that Chirac would meet with Sultan on Thursday as planned but that an additional meeting had been set for Wednesday.

Chirac visited Saudi Arabia in March without clinching a defense deal, but the two countries are in talks over the supply to Riyadh of helicopters, Rafale fighters, refueling planes, tanks, frigates and submarines, among others.

If there is a crossroads for the Middle East's axis of fundamentalist Shiites, hard-line Sunnis and Arab nationalists, it must be in this dusty, gridlocked suburb of Damascus. Angrily dispossessed people have landed in succession from the Palestinian territories, Iraq, Iran and southern Lebanon, whose residents have been arriving dazed and tearful by the car- and busload for days.

There is broad opposition to the U.S. and Israel across the Middle East. But the resistance heroes, radical clerics and rogue heads of state dear to the residents of Sayeda Zainab include the late Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Syrian leader Bashar Assad. They are the figureheads of an increasingly powerful alliance aimed at countering U.S. and Israeli policy.



"We are different in every single scope in this community," said Wasef Mahmoud, a 31-year-old Palestinian whose family left northern Israel after the creation of the Jewish state in 1948. "But we have one thing in common: Israel is against us, and we are against Israel."

They are against the United States too. At a religious school housing Lebanon refugees, an American's brief query Wednesday was met with angry shouts and a plea from the proprietor to leave as quickly as possible to avoid trouble.

"Death to America!" three men shouted, rushing at the door before being pulled back. "We hate you!"



Many Lebanese, who pressed Syria to withdraw from their country last year, would disagree with Hahel's characterization of Lebanon and Syria as one country. But it was Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982 that first sent Shiite Lebanese fleeing toward the ornate mosaic and silver-spangled shrine here dedicated to the prophet Muhammad's granddaughter. Many of them subsequently returned home.

Palestinians had already set up a small refugee town here, as had Syrians who fled the Golan Heights when Israel captured it in 1967. Iranians ousted from Iraq by Saddam Hussein during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war flooded in when Iran wouldn't take them back. A wave of Iraqi refugees arrived after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. And now the Lebanese are coming again.

Syria's secular regime, governing a nation of mainly Sunni Muslims, forged a friendship with Shiite Iran years ago based on their mutual antagonism toward Hussein. Hezbollah and Hamas come from entirely separate schools of Islamic theology, but the two found common cause in their hatred of Israel.



Now all four are united in a program whose ultimate goal is ejecting Israel from at least the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and Lebanon, undermining pro-Western Arab governments.



Analysts here say a key factor in solidifying the partnership was the current war in Iraq, which not only raised fears among pro-Western Sunni Arab leaders that Shiites were gaining power, but also provided a successful model for long-running guerrilla warfare against the U.S.

"The insurgency in Iraq was able up to this moment to stand against the United States Army. And this has taught a lesson to the others. It has changed the whole equation in the Middle East," said Nabil Samman, head of the Center for Research and Documentation, a Damascus think tank.

"We're not talking about open war with the United States. We're not adventurists. We know very well our limitations," said Mohammed Habash, an independent member of parliament and director of the Islamic Studies Center in the Syrian capital.

"But we believe there are more tools than this kind of war in the Middle East," he said. "It's not a secret to tell you that there are a lot in Syria who have a desire to work in the sphere of resistance, to fight."

A previously unheard-of group calling itself the National Popular Coalition for the Liberation of the Golan Heights issued a statement last week "calling to open the door for volunteers in the resistance movement to defend our land."

"We have no doubt now that resistance is the only way to get back our Arab rights," it said.

Analysts say the Iraq war also played a part in pushing Syria closer to Iran. Moderate Arab governments became worried about the rising influence of Shiite Islam after the Iraqi elections, at the same time that they were becoming alarmed about Iran's nuclear program.

"The Arab countries, with Iran having its nuclear plans, sort of tried to make Syria choose between Iran and them," said Georges Jabbour, a legislator from the ruling Baath Party and an advisor to the late Syrian President Hafez Assad, father of the current head of state.

"But Syria was aware of the importance of the Iranian role in the region even before the Islamic Revolution" of 1979, he said. The elder Assad, he said, "was a strategist, he was a military man. He looked at the map and saw that Iran had a very big place on the map."

Some Syrians say they've been waiting decades for the kinds of apocalyptic pronouncements Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, has made against Israel.

"Ahmadinejad is a good man, because he wants to get rid of Israel," said Hahel, at the poster shop. "For Muslims, there is a promise that the state of Israel will not survive. If not now, then 100 years from now. This is God's promise to the Muslims."

The Iranians have helped restore the shrine here in Sayeda Zainab and are handing out alms to Lebanese who arrive.

A few blocks away, the Persian on the street signs gives way to Arabic. Vendors selling fat tomatoes and lamb stuffed with parsley have Iraqi accents. But the words are the same.

"The Americans want to make it a Crusaders-Muslim war, and if it keeps going like this, they will get one," said Abu Jaffar, an unemployed Iraqi musician who gathers daily with other displaced Iraqis, including several former soldiers in Hussein's army, to drink lemon-lime sodas on Baghdad Street.

"With what's going on in Lebanon, I can tell you that all the Arabs are supporters of Hezbollah," he said. "Because they are Muslims."

Six days after the start of hostilities between Israel and Lebanon, the first US chartered cruise ship arrived in Beirut to pick up US citizens, and the US Navy ordered the nine ships to waters off Lebanon.

The vessels, including four amphibious assault ships now in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, will be used to bring out large numbers of Americans and provide security amid fears of terrorist attacks, said Vice Admiral Patrick Walsh, the commander of US Fifth Fleet.

"I'm concerned about attacks on ships, you bet," he told reporters here via videolink from his headquarters in Bahrain.

Ferries and cruise ships have been able to move freely between Lebanon and Cyprus so far, and the US navy has been making arrangements to hire more commercial vessels to bring out Americans, officials said.

But Walsh said, "It's prudent not to assume anything when we go into an environment like this. So we make all preparations in our planning and deliberations so we're ready for any contingency."

"That sort of scenario is something we are planning for," he said.

The first of four amphibious warships is expected to enter the eastern Mediterranean on Wednesday and the others will arrive over the course of the week, he said.

They include the helicopter carrier USS Iwo Jima, two amphibious dock landing ships, and an amphibious transport dock ship.

About 2,200 marines are aboard the Iwo Jima, including a battalion and a medium lift helicopter squadron.

Walsh said landing craft and helicopters will be used to move Americans to the safety of the amphibious warships which he said can hold about 1,000 people.

A guided missile destroyer, the USS Gonzalez, was already in the area to provide security, officials said. Other warships were coming from elsewhere in the European theater, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, Walsh said.

The Orient Queen, a Greek cruise ship hired Monday, docked in Beirut and was boarding Americans, and another chartered vessel with space for 1,400 passengers was due to arrive Wednesday, Walsh said.

"The threat level presently allows for to us move the ferry back and forth. We will take advantage of that to the maximum extent possible," he said.

"But we'll also have warships positioned strategically and tactically in order to ensure the safe and secure passage of American citizens from Lebanon to Cyprus," he said.

Until now the US evacuation has consisted of a half dozen CH-53 helicopters that have flown only 124 Americans to safety in Cyprus since Sunday.

Walsh said the mobilization of US naval forces had been ordered earlier but took time to assemble because of the distances involved, and because the marines aboard the amphibious ships were engaged in an exercise in Jordan.

France and Italy already have major evacuations underway. About 900 mostly French nationals arrived in Cyprus on Tuesday by chartered ferry from Beirut. An Italian warship brought out another 300 people Monday.

Democrats wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urging that all resources be made available for a swift evacuation of Americans.

"Reports that American citizens who have been registered with the State Department are not being evacuated immediately are enormously troubling," Senator Harry Reid, the minority leader, and senior senators Carl Levin and Ted Kennedy, said in the letter.

Representative Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, criticized the State Department for demanding that US citizens sign agreements to repay their transportation costs.

"I think we moved very fast," Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told CNN television.

"We're highly organized, very efficient, very active. We're on this one and doing a good job," he said.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the United States was in discussions to hire four or five other commercial vessels of varying size for the evacuation.

Israel has imposed a naval blockade on Lebanon, and its fighter jets have severely damaged Beirut International Airport and struck roads, bridges and other infrastructure in retaliation for the Hezbollah missile attacks on northern Israel.

The US embassy has discouraged Americans from trying to get out of the country by road toSyria, warning of the danger of Israeli airstrikes.

The State Department estimates there are 25,000 Americans in Lebanon, and about 15,000 of them have registered with the US embassy.

Military officials said helicopters flew out 60 people on Tuesday, 43 on Monday and 21 on Sunday. Another 60 passengers were due to fly back later in the day, they said.

But the State Department was generally reserving those flights for Americans with special needs and will rely instead on chartered vessels for the bulk of evacuees, Whitman said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said, "Moscow confirms its commitment to a decisive war against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. We also confirm our demands that the captured Israeli servicemen be unconditionally freed. However, the unprecedented scale of fatalities and destruction shows that actions [on the part of Israel] to achieve this goal have gone far beyond the bounds of an anti-terrorist operation."

Russian President Vladimir Putin told a Sunday night news conference at the summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations that, according to Arab sources, Israel was pursuing goals other than the release of its hostages.

The ministry statement said an immediate ceasefire was the first urgent step needed to end the escalating violence. "The first urgent step in the current critical situation must be an immediate ceasefire and end to bloodshed. We support the urgent call for this made by Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora."

The Lebanese leader called for an end to Israel's military action - which he called "barbaric" - in an appeal Wednesday. He also asked for immediate humanitarian aid. The Russian Foreign Ministry said a ceasefire would enable civilians to leave the conflict zones safely, and would allow political and diplomatic negotiations to begin.

The ministry said it had also sent a proposal to deliver aid to Lebanon.

Bombed roads are hampering aid efforts, with the UN warning the humanitarian crisis is worsening by the hour.

The EU intervention comes as Israeli soldiers are fighting militants inside Lebanon, Israeli officials say.

Israel is also continuing its bombing campaign, carrying out 80 air strikes early on Thursday.

'Catastrophe'

As thousands of foreigners continue to flee the country with the help of their governments, aid agencies are expressing increasing concern for those who will be left behind, especially people in the south who have been displaced by the fighting.

UN emergency relief co-ordinator Jan Egeland said the wounded could not be helped because Israeli air raids had cut off roads.

Without a truce allowing aid agencies to begin the relief effort there would be a "catastrophe", he warned.

On Thursday, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will try to persuade the Security Council to take action to end the violence.

He will then hold a private meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

Mr Annan has already repeated calls for a new international force to be deployed in the Lebanese border region.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the EU aid would be dedicated to those in most urgent need "so that we can express our solidarity to the civilians that are suffering for this terrible conflict".

Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen of Finland, which holds the EU presidency, said the 25-member bloc was "acutely concerned" about the crisis.

"The EU stands ready to help. A strong international presence in southern Lebanon, approved by the Security Council, may be needed," he said.

"However, all parties to the conflict must first commit to a ceasefire."

Lebanon's president has also called for an immediate ceasefire, describing Israel's offensive - which has killed about 300 people and displaced an estimated 500,000 - as a "massacre".

Stranded in the war zone

The nine days of fighting - triggered by the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid - have left 29 Israelis dead, including 15 civilians killed by rockets fired by Hezbollah into Israel.

Earlier, Captain Eric Schneider from the Israeli Defence Force told the BBC there was heavy fighting between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants in two places inside Lebanon's border.

Hezbollah issued a statement saying that it had destroyed two Israeli tanks. The Israeli army has not confirmed this, but did say at least three Israeli soldiers had been injured.

The Israeli public security minister, Avi Dichter, said Hezbollah had to understand that its "time is up" and that Israel will only accept a Lebanese government force at the border.

In other developments:

* Those being evacuated on Thursday include about 3,000 Britons, who are being transferred onto three Royal Navy ships

* US marines from the USS Nashville have come ashore in Beirut to assist with the evacuation of US citizens

* Cyprus says it cannot cope with the influx of evacuees, expected to reach 60,000, and appeals to the European Commission for additional planes to fly evacuees to their home countries

* The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, warns that those involved in the spiral of violence between Israel and Lebanon could face war crimes charges if they are found to have deliberately attacked civilians

* Pope Benedict XVI calls for a day of prayer on Sunday for an immediate ceasefire in the crisis

The Israelis say they are fighting to end the control of Hezbollah over the lives of ordinary people on both sides of the border.



Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the campaign against the militants would continue "as long as necessary" to free its captured soldiers and ensure Hezbollah was not a threat.

Yesterday was the heaviest day for civilian casualties since Israel's bombardment began last week, with at least 63 killed and scores more wounded. A total of 315 Lebanese, mostly civilians, have been killed and hundreds injured since the start of the Israeli offensive.

Last night dozens of planes dropped 23 tonnes of explosives on what the Army said was a bunker in south Beirut used by Hezbollah's leadership. The group said none of is leaders where killed in the attack.

A senior British official said: "Our concern is that Israeli military action is not having the desired effect. We're not seeing the level of impact [which Israel and its allies would want]." Hezbollah was "still highprofile in southern Beirut", even if its claims to have lost only three fighters underplayed the damage done. "We're not seeing any large-scale destruction of Hezbollah rockets," the official added, "and we don't know where they are."

Israel claimed yesterday to have destroyed half of Hezbollah's rockets, which the guerrilla group has been firing steadily across the Lebanese border. "We have already destroyed around 50 per cent of the rockets and missiles that Hezbollah had," General Alon Friedman told army radio.

The Israeli action had "disrupted Hezbollah but there's not much more they can do with an extensive campaign", a British official said. "We are concerned that continued military operations by Israel will cause further damage to infrastructure and loss of civilian life which the damage to Hezbollah will not justify."

But the need for Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, to appear tough at home might tempt him to continue even when the military value was slight, officials suggested.

The Bush Administration, by contrast, has given Israel a green light to continue its attempt to crush Hezbollah.

Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State, is now expected to visit the region on Sunday in a sign of greater US engagement, that will be welcomed by European governments. Today, at the UN Security Council in New York, Britain will push for a set of "guidelines for the next phase" which go further than the G8 summit managed last week. "We do need a plan, partly to give Israel a reason to stop its military action," the official said. Britain and the US also want to show Iran, Hezbollah's backers, that it cannot ignite such conflicts.

But the meeting will expose differences within the council - and between Britain and the US. There are deep disagreements about how to respond to the crisis, which began nine days ago with Hezbollah's kidnapping of Israeli soldiers.

The heart of the British plan is the proposal, promoted by Tony Blair at the G8 summit, for an international force in southern Lebanon to allow Lebanese security forces to regain control from Hezbollah. The US has been sceptical of the idea. Britain has also been anxious about the lack of urgency shown by the US, reflected in the nine days that it has taken to assemble the Council.

On Tuesday, Dr Rice said that there should be a ceasefire "as soon as possible when conditions are conducive to do so", words widely interpreted as licence for Israel to continue.

France, which backs the notion of an international force, also wants the Council to call for a ceasefire, a demand on Israel which the US and Britain are unlikely to accept.

The first sign of British frustration at the US position came during the summit when, in an unguarded conversation with Mr Bush, Mr Blair revealed his anxiety about the need for urgent intervention. The Prime Minister suggested that he could visit the region immediately if a trip by Dr Rice took too long to arrange.

However, in the Commons yesterday, Mr Blair backed Israel's right to defend itself, provided that it "does its best to minimise civilian casualties", a position matching that of the US. This conflict "started with the kidnap of Israeli soldiers and the bombardment of northern Israel", he told Sir Menzies Campbell when challenged to say whether it was US policy to tolerate further Israeli military action. Mr Blair mocked Sir Menzies for saying that Britain should call for an "immediate and unconditional ceasefire". Hezbollah had sent " in the region of 1,600 rockets into northern Israel", and while that continued, a "proportionate" response was justified.

I called up the State Department to ask about the policy. "We are not standing there with a cash box asking people to pay before they get on the boat," spokeswoman Janelle Hironimus told me. But if they don't pay (by check, no cash or credit cards accepted), or sign a form promising to pay, they don't go. It's the law: "Reasonable commercial air fare" shall be charged to all evacuees.

What if they're dead?

Same deal, she said. No freebies, even if you're not around to enjoy it.

Hironimus said that she didn't know the exact fee being charged. Evacuees are signing promissory notes. Those citizens will find out how much they owe when they get the bill in the mail.

And if a U.S. citizen is killed waiting to evacuate -- or because they stayed behind, unable to promise their government they could pay?

"We arrange with their families," Hironimus said. "We discuss their choices, but it's paid for by the families."

In any case, the spokeswoman assured me, no one would get left behind.