The United States backed Israel in the war, and Bush made clear he was determined to help the Israelis in the post-fighting struggle of words about who wound up on top.

The president portrayed the war, which killed about 790 Lebanese and 155 Israelis, as part of a broader struggle between freedom and terrorism. He said one can only imagine how much more dangerous such a conflict would be if Iran possessed nuclear weapons.

Bush said Hezbollah lost, though Israel didn't knock out the guerrillas.

Israel's prime minister and Bush said the offensive eliminated the "state within a state" run by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, however, declared that his guerrillas achieved a "strategic, historic victory" over Israel.

"Hezbollah, of course, has got a fantastic propaganda machine, and they're claiming victories," Bush said. "But how can you claim victory when, at one time, you were a state within a state, safe within southern Lebanon, and now you're going to be replaced by a Lebanese army and an international force?"

Bush said a United Nations-brokered cease-fire was an important step toward ending the violence, yet he acknowledged that the truce was fragile.

"We certainly hope the cease-fire holds because it is step one of making sure that Lebanon's democracy is strengthened," Bush said.

The U.N. plan calls for a joint Lebanese-international force to act as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah militiamen. France and Italy, along with predominantly Muslim Turkey and Malaysia, have signaled willingness to contribute troops to the joint force, but consultations are needed on the force's makeup and mandate.

Bush spoke on the phone early Monday to Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, and Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Italy's troops could be ready within two weeks.

"There's going to be a new power in the south of Lebanon, and that's going to be a Lebanese force with a robust international force to help them seize control of the country - that part of the country," Bush said.

On Bush's first day back from vacation, his motorcade traveled between the White House and State and Defense departments for meetings on transforming the U.S. military, on homeland security and on the warfare in Afghanistan and
Iraq.

Sectarian violence has surged in Iraq and created what some consider the greatest threat to stability there since
Saddam Hussein's government was toppled three years ago. Meanwhile, efforts to get North Korea and Iran to restrict their nuclear ambitions remained stalled.

"We live in troubled times, but I'm confident in our capacity to not only protect the homeland, but I'm confident in our capacity to leave behind a better world," Bush said at a meeting at the Pentagon where he sat between Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Vice President
Dick Cheney.

His words sought to calm jitters about last week's arrests of more than two dozen people in England and Pakistan accused of plotting to blow up as many as 10 passenger planes flying between Britain and the United States.

The nation's safety looms large as an issue in the midterm elections. Both Republicans and Democrats are maneuvering for political advantage with control of Congress at stake.

The Prime Minister, who was repeatedly heckled by opposition MPs during his address, insisted the international commitments in Friday night's UN resolution would "change fundamentally" the balance of forces on the country's northern border.

But, facing his first major political crisis since winning the election five months ago, he acknowledged "the overall responsibility for this operation lies with me, the Prime Minister. I am not asking to share this with anyone." A number of Knesset members including the Israeli Arab Ahmed Tibi, a furious opponent of the war, were ejected from the chamber.

The opening of what is likely to prove a bitter post-mortem came as the two sides began an uneasy truce. The conflict is estimated to have cost well over 1,000 Lebanese lives as well as those of 156 Israelis - civilians and soldiers.

The fragility of the ceasefire was underlined by four incidents in which Israeli troops shot dead six Hizbollah fighters after the ceasefire began at 8am yesterday. The Israeli military insisted the incidents were within guidelines permitting troops to open fire when threatened and did not jeopardise the truce.

Promising that the government "will have to examine ourselves at all levels," Mr Olmert fought to pre-empt a probable campaign by the political right by declaring that Hizbollah had been dealt a "harsh blow". He added that the guerrilla group was no longer "a state within a state" or a "terrorist organisation that is allowed to act inside a state as an arm of the axis of evil", referring to Syria and Iran.

While refraining from a direct personal attack on Mr Olmert, Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the right- wing Likud opposition, lost little time in declaring "there were many failures, failures in identifying the threat, failures in preparing to meet the threat, failures in the management of the war, failures in the management of the home front."

Critics from right and left were fortified by a Globes Smith poll showing, remarkably given the degree to which the army is embedded in Israeli society, that 52 per cent of electors believed the Israel Defence Forces had been unsuccessful in its Lebanon offensive as opposed to 44 per cent who believed it did well.

Mr Netanyahu also pointedly chose to attack unilateral withdrawals - the issue on which Mr Olmert fought his election in March. Mr Netanyahu said: "We left Lebanon to the last centimetre and they are firing. We left Gaza to the last centimetre and they are firing."

Meanwhile, the Hizbollah leader said he believes the Lebanese army and international troops are "incapable of protecting Lebanon". He also said it was the "wrong time" for a public discussion on disarming the guerrilla group.

At the eastern end of the northern border, heavy artillery barrages and repeated tank machine-gun fire continued yesterday up to the ceasefire deadline.

But as the artillery batteries fell silent and firing stopped, there was a final single explosion at about 8.05pm, sending a plume of grey smoke upwards before the uneasy calm began.

Amid a wave of angry civilian reactions in Israel after more than a month in which an estimated 3,500 rockets were fired into northern Israel, Sam Echahid, the manager of a local supermarket, was asked whether he thought the ceasefire would hold. He said: "I hope not. We haven't done anything yet."

Nasrallah also said that now was not the time to debate the disarmament of Hezbollah fighters, arguing that the issue should be done in secret sessions of the government to avoid serving Israeli interests.

"This is immoral, incorrect and inappropriate," he said. "It is wrong timing on the psychological and moral level particularly before the ceasefire.

"Who will defend Lebanon in case of a new Israeli offensive? The Lebanese army and international troops are incapable of protecting Lebanon."

Moments after his speech ended, celebratory gunfire erupted across Beirut.

Earlier, posters of Nasrallah were distributed in Beirut's Shia-dominant southern suburbs with the caption: "The divine victory."

Counter-claims

However, Israel maintained on Monday that it had won a diplomatic victory over Hezbollah because the UN resolution would put the group under international scrutiny.

"We have the diplomatic advantage as Hezbollah is now under the microscope of the international community," Yigal Palmor, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

Hezbollah and its chief, Hassan Nasrallah, "will have to respect resolution 1701", he said, which calls for an embargo on arms and training to fighters in Lebanon.

"This means that there will no longer be a state within a state along our northern border to keep provoking us," he said.

Palmor said: "Politically and militarily, Hezbollah can no longer do what it likes in Lebanon."

Shimon Peres, the deputy prime minister of Israel, said: "Hezbollah will not finish a huge hero, but with its tail between its legs."

Prime Minister Olmert, Defense Minister Peretz and Chief of Staff Dan Halutz have been the brunt of withering criticism in the Israeli press, and for good reason. They are, without question, the worst collection of bunglers in Israeli history; the political equivalent of the "3 Stooges". Sharon may have been a war criminal, but he was an astute strategist. Olmert and "wrongway" Halutz are completely clueless. As soon as it was decided that the war could not be won militarily, Halutz charged up to the Litani River backed by thousands ground-troops afraid that his chances for glory were quickly ebbing-away. In the process, another 31 soldiers were killed in a campaign that still has no clearly defined objectives. Meanwhile, Shaul Mofaz, the only Israeli general who could probably transform the current disaster into something resembling "a draw"; is left sitting on the sidelines.

What a fiasco.

Now that the ceasefire has been approved, the politicians and the generals are stumbling over themselves trying to cobble together the victory that has escaped them for the last 4 weeks. Olmert and co. know that as soon as the dust settles they will face an irate Israeli public looking for someone to hold accountable for the debacle. Ha'aretz op-ed writer Ari Shavit summed up the public mood this way:

"One thing should be clear: If Olmert runs away now from the war he initiated, he will not be able to remain prime minister for even one more day. Chutzpah has its limits. You cannot lead an entire nation to war promising victory, produce humiliating defeat and remain in power. You cannot bury 120 Israelis in cemeteries, keep a million Israelis in shelters for a month, wear down deterrent power, bring the next war very close, and then say, oooops, I made a mistake."

Columnist Moshe Arens added to Shavit's critique saying, "The task facing Israel now is to restore its deterrent posture and prepare for the attacks that are sure to come. But not with this leadership. They have exhausted whatever little credit they had when they were voted into office."

The anger that is growing in Israel is narcissistic and self-serving and has nothing to do with the vast devastation the IAF has visited on battered Lebanon.

Lebanon is in ruins. The country's main bridges, roads, industries, ports, canals, telecommunications, oil depots, water facilities and factories have been buried by a steady barrage of Israeli precision guided munitions. George Bush can be credited with a large part of the damage. He rushed an order of high-tech bombs to his friends in Tel Aviv to make sure that the slaughter would continue without interruption. He also blocked the ceasefire resolutions at the UN which allowed Israel to continue its withering bombardment of Lebanon.

The UN ceasefire agreement was clearly written in close collaboration with Israel. It allows the IDF to continue "defensive operations" while Hezbollah is required to stop fighting. Israel interprets this as a green light for aggressively pursuing Hezbollah.

According to Israeli daily newspaper Ha'aretz, "The army will stop its offensive as soon as it is ordered to do so by the political leadership and later it will begin to retrace its steps to uncover any pockets of resistance that may remain in the area." With troops presently located at the Litani River that could involve military operations throughout the entire south, which means that hostilities could continue for months.

Israel is at war with itself. It's trying to produce a victory where victory is impossible. With less than 24 hours until the ceasefire goes into effect, they've unleashed a massive aerial assault bombing more than 50 cities and towns north and south of the Litani River. The bombing campaign drew the immediate censure of Kofi Annan who said that the attack was not in keeping with the spirit of the ceasefire.

No matter. Israel will keep firing away; savaging what little is left of Lebanon's tattered infrastructure in the vain hope that they might patch together something that resembles success, but to what affect? Hezbollah may be badly damaged and its supply-lines ruptured, but they merely need to hang on to generate a reliable stream of new recruits and to win plaudits from around the world for standing up to the IDF.

Prime Minister Olmert is ambivalent about the sudden military escalation just prior to the ceasefire. Clearly, the war is controlling Olmert; Olmert does not control the war. The uproar in the media has left him vacillating and hesitant; searching for other solutions besides a quick withdrawal. He looks like a man gabbing at straws, hoping for a decisive event that will prove that Hezbollah is weakening. Meanwhile the IDF casualties continue to mount and the collective angst of the Israeli public becomes more palpable.

As for Sheik Nasrallah, he has resisted the usual inflammatory rhetoric and demonstrated Hezbollah's lethal proficiency on the battlefield where it counts. The guerillas have matched the IDF man-for-man and forced the world's 4th most powerful army into a stalemate.

In the early days of the war, Nasrallah described Hezbollah's abilities in modest terms:

"We are not a classic army extending form the sea to Mt Hermon. We are a popular and serious resistance movement that is present in many areas and axes. Our equation and principles are the following: When the Israelis enter, they must pay dearly in terms of their tanks, officers, and soldiers. That is what we pledge to do and we will honor our pledge, God willing".

Olmert should study this passage and commit it to memory. Nasrallah has laid out his very limited goals in the war in lucid but powerful language. These are realistic objectives and they are achievable, unlike Israel's. That's why he will probably prevail, if he perseveres. Nasrallah does not entertain the foolish idea that he will overwhelm the IDF or invade Israel. He simply plans to gnaw away day by day, hour by hour, at the occupying army forcing them eventually to retreat. He is a shrewd student of asymmetrical warfare and grasps how to exploit the vulnerabilities of a regular army as well as Israeli public opinion (which is already souring on the conflict)

Nasrallah has said that he will abide by the terms of the ceasefire, but will not disarm until the Lebanese Army and the UN forces are in place and the IDF has left Lebanese soil. In his mind, it is pointless to talk about disarmament now when Hezbollah is the only force capable of defending Lebanon from foreign invasion.

Will Hezbollah willingly disarm after Israel leaves?

That is what Israel wonders, but it is the wrong question. The real question is: What are the chances that the IDF will reinvade sometime in the future as they have 4 times before? And, who will provide the weaponry that will create a viable deterrent to Israeli aggression so that Lebanon can live in peace?

Nasrallah's promises to disarm mean nothing. His primary responsibility is to his own people, to protect their right to live free of Israeli violence and occupation.

If Sheik Nasrallah chooses to disarm and put his faith in Israel's assurances of non aggression, that's his choice. But he should pay close attention to the treatment of the Palestinians in Gaza before he sets his rifle down.

Olmert, who said that responsibility for the military operation lay with him, said there were "shortcomings" in the offensive against Hezbollah but urged patience, arguing that the Israeli army had "publically battered this murderous organisation".

However, Benyamin Netanyahu, opposition leader in the Knesset, said that the government's policy had "expressed weakness".

"There were failures in identifying the threat, in managing the war, and in comforting the home front," he said.

Netanyahu also dismissed the United Nations-brokered ceasefire which began on Monday morning as merely a brief lull which would only enable Hezbollah to re-arm.

More than 150 Israelis, mostly soldiers, died during the conflict in Lebanon, while about 1,100 Lebanese, mainly civilians, were also killed.

Domestic anger

An opinion poll conducted by an Israeli newspaper late on Monday showed support for Olmert's Kadima party had slumped since the conflict in Lebanon began, with more than half of those questioned saying they felt the Israeli army had not achieved its aims in Lebanon.

Critics of the campaign say that Olmert failed to crush the Hezbollah Shia militia group as promised and express doubt that the operation will halt rocket attacks into northern Israel.

Meanwhile, Israeli newspapers on Tuesday quoted Amir Peretz, the Israeli defence minister, as saying that he planned to assign a task force to investigate the Israeli army's conduct during the war in Lebanon.

"As defence minister, I intend to appoint a team that will conduct an intensive, comprehensive investigation of all the events leading up to the war and during the war," he said.

Israel's Jerusalem Post also reported that Micha Lindenstrauss, Israel's state comptroller, will lead a second investigation into preparations for the war in the home front, while the Knesset foreign affairs and defence committee will form a third parliamentary probe into the war.

"We choose peace as a strategic choice, but it does not mean we exclude other choices and does not mean we have given up resistance," the president said.

"Resistance is a strong force to face the Israeli aggression which is necessary to realize peace and restore rights," he added, dubbing resistance as "a thought which will play an essential role in the future."

Assad, however, noted that resistance was "not necessarily an armed one", but could also be embodied in different forms such as in the cultural and political fields.

Meanwhile, the president claimed the failure of the Middle East peace process, saying "the peace process has failed. It has failed since its inception" and "we do not expect peace in the near future."

Assad blamed the current U.S. administration for the failure because it "chooses war, not peace".

"For the peace process, the United State is necessary, but it should not be this administration," he said.

Israel launched massive attacks in neighboring Lebanon on July 12 after two soldiers was kidnapped by the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement in cross-border raids.

A ceasefire brokered by the United Nations took effect on Monday after the month-long war killed some 1,100 Lebanese people, mostly civilians, and about 156 Israelis.

Washington has repeatedly blamed Damascus, together with its ally Tehran, for the bloodshed in Lebanon because of their support to Hezbollah.

"Responsibility for the suffering of the Lebanese people also lies with Hezbollah's state sponsors, Iran and Syria," U.S. President George W. Bush said in his latest accusation on Monday.

Here is a provisional breakdown of countries prepared to contribute troops:

FRANCE

French President Jacques Chirac, whose country drafted the UN resolution with the United States, has said France will assume its responsibilities, "particularly concerning the new UNIFIL force."

Reports say France would command the UNIFIL deployment.

The defence ministry has said it is "too early" to put a figure to France's troop contribution, although press reports have spoken of several thousand.

One French official, speaking anonymously, said 4,000 "seems a feasible number," while a military source said the actual number of French soldiers in Lebanon would likely be around 2,500.

A French military planning officer was due to arrive at the UN peacekeeping operations department in New York Monday. In addition, five military engineers were expected in Lebanon to assess road transport reconstruction needs.

ITALY

Italy has agreed to send some troops, according to both the Lebanese and Israeli governments.

Italian defence officials cited by the media have spoken of between 2,000 and 3,000 soldiers. The government is to meet on Friday to set out the details of the mission.

MALAYSIA

Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has said the country will send a battalion of 1,000 soldiers once the UN gives the green light.

RUSSIA

Russia is considering the possibility of participating but the foreign ministry said a decision had not been made.

BELGIUM

Belgian Defence Minister Andre Flahaut told AFP that Brussels intended to send troops but it was unclear how many because the mandate had not yet been defined.

SPAIN

A government official told AFP Spain planned to send 700 soldiers.

Defence Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said in a radio interview Monday: "It is especially important to arrive at a peace and Spain, as a member of the United Nations, is ready to help out."

GERMANY

Germany's interior and defence ministers have said they are in favour of contributing soldiers, but no number has been advanced and parliament has yet to vote on any deployment.

PORTUGAL

Portugal has said it is willing to contribute troops, without specifying how many.

THAILAND

Thailand has said it would consider "positively" a UN request for troops, without giving a number.

INDONESIA, MOROCCO and TURKEY

These three Muslim countries have all agreed to take part, according to the Lebanese prime minister's office, but Turkey indicated Monday that it would wait for an expected new UN resolution "to bring more clarity." Again, no firm numbers have been given.

These countries are undecided or have apparently ruled out supplying soldiers to the new force:

AUSTRALIA

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has said he was undecided whether to supply troops.

"If we were to make a decision to make a commitment it would be a very small, niche commitment," he said. "We have other responsibilities."

BRITAIN

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said his country's military -- engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan -- is too stretched to be involved in the reinforced UNIFIL deployment.

INDIA

India said there were no plans to add to its 672 soldiers already serving in the current UNIFIL. A foreign ministry spokesman said: "I see nothing leading to that."

NORWAY

A Norwegian foreign ministry spokeswoman said "it is too early to go into any detail about a Norwegian contribution to a peacekeeping force for Lebanon."

UNITED STATES

The United States, Israel's closest ally, is thought unlikely to contribute to a force in Lebanon.

Although frantic moves are being made to get the new UNIFIL deployed as quickly as possible, there is no firm timetable. Israel has said its soldiers will remain in strategic positions in southern Lebanon until UNIFIL troops take over.

UNIFIL, under its original mandate, has been in operating in southern Lebanon for 28 years. That rolling mandate was again extended for one month by a UN Security Council vote on July 31. It currently counts troops from China, France, Ghana, India, Ireland, Italy, Poland and Ukraine, under French command.

Under UN resolution 1701, the expanded force is to support the Lebanese army as it takes up positions in southern Lebanon, formerly a Hezbollah-controlled zone, and help in humanitarian work.

The resolution says UNIFIL will "take all necessary action in areas of deployment of its forces, and as it deems within its capabilities, to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind."

An Israeli Army spokeswoman said troops deployed in Faroun, elsewhere in southern Lebanon, shot another Hezbollah guerrilla who had approached them and aimed his gun at them. It was not known whether he survived.

Israel has maintained its air and sea blockade of Lebanon and has warned it will renew attacks if Hezbollah does not honour the ceasefire. The army said the blockade would continue until the Lebanese Government was able to prevent arms transfers to Hezbollah.

Seven Israeli solders were killed and 25 injured as the army continued its advance in southern Lebanon on Sunday, the last full day of the war.

The Israeli Government declared victory yesterday and began trumpeting the benefits of the truce amid public criticism of its handling of the campaign.

"We now have a framework for building a better Lebanon and for establishing better relations with Lebanon," said an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mark Regev.

"We have come out of this stronger, and destroyed Hezbollah's state within a state."

The Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, was due to explain the United Nations resolution to the Knesset, but was expected to face criticism from the Opposition Leader, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Minister for Defence, Amir Peretz, has acknowledged the war would be followed by questions about intelligence failures and the home front's lack of readiness for the barrages of rockets fired by Hezbollah.

One minister, Shaul Mofaz, abstained during the cabinet's 24-0 vote to accept the UN ceasefire. Mr Mofaz said the ceasefire should have demanded the return of kidnapped Israeli soldiers and was unlikely to be honoured by Hezbollah.

At 8am, as the wails from the air-raid sirens died out, residents in northern Israel waited to see if the silence would endure.

Judith Jakab, who dared to keep her 24-year-old Haifa cafe open throughout the fighting, said she would wait another day before removing signs directing customers to a bomb shelter.

"I don't like having the signs there," she said. "It worries people. I think I'll take them down tomorrow."

About a third of the 1 million people in the north of the country have fled to the south. Few were expected to return yesterday.

In Gaza, Palestinian militants fired missiles at the coastal city of Ashkelon. There were no injuries. Reuters reported that an Israeli air strike killed three Palestinians in the Gaza Strip shortly afterwards.

Lines of cars - some loaded with mattresses and luggage - snaked slowly around huge holes in the roads and ruined bridges. Many Lebanese expressed shock at finding houses and villages flattened in more than a month of Israeli air and artillery strikes.

Hezbollah fighters hugged each other and celebratory gunfire and fireworks erupted in Beirut as the Islamic militant group's leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah claimed a "strategic, historic victory."

But Israeli Prime Ehud Olmert also claimed success, saying the offensive eliminated the "state within a state" run by Hezbollah group and restored Lebanon's sovereignty in the south.

The Israeli army said Tuesday it planned to begin relinquishing parts of southern Lebanon to the Lebanese army on Wednesday, and hopes to complete the evacuation of its forces by next week.

In northern Israel, residents emerged from bomb shelters, hopeful that the barrage of nearly 4,000 Hezbollah rockets that had rained down on towns and villages since July 12 had ended - for now. Stores shuttered for weeks reopened and some people returned to the beaches in Haifa, which suffered most from guerrilla attacks.

President Bush said Monday that Hezbollah guerillas suffered a defeat at the hands of Israel and he blamed the guerrilla group for the devastation. "There's going to be a new power in the south of Lebanon," he said.

The conflict left nearly 950 people dead - 791 in Lebanon and 155 on the Israeli side, according to official counts. An estimated 500,000 Israelis and about 1 million Lebanese, or a quarter of the population, were displaced in the conflict, government officials said.

The truce that took effect at 8 a.m. (1 a.m. EDT) largely held through its first day, although skirmishes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah left six guerrillas killed as both sides promised to retaliate when placed on the defensive.

The odds of a durable end to the fighting depended on the quick deployment of the Lebanese army and an international force into the 18-mile-deep band of south Lebanon between the Litani River and the Israeli frontier.

A United Nations force that now has 2,000 peacekeepers in south Lebanon is to grow to 15,000 troops, and Lebanon's army is to send in a 15,000-man contingent.

Lebanon's Defense Minister Elias Murr said Lebanese forces would be ready to deploy north of the Litani River this week, but that was unlikely to satisfy Israel, which wants a force along the border to rein in Hezbollah.

Murr also said the current U.N. peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL would assume positions vacated by Israel before handing them over to the Lebanese army, and he expected international troops to begin arriving within the next 10 days.

The French commander of UNIFIL, Maj. Gen. Alain Pellegrini, told The Associated Press that additional troops were needed quickly because the stability of the cease-fire was fragile. The region is "not safe from a provocation, or a stray act, that could undermine everything," he said.

France and Italy, along with predominantly Muslim Turkey and Malaysia, have signaled willingness to contribute troops to the peacekeeping force, but consultations are needed on the force's makeup and mandate. Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Italy's troops could be ready within two weeks.

The Israeli army said Tuesday it had already begun thinning out its forces in Lebanon with the departure of a small number of troops. While Israel claimed to have flooded south Lebanon with 30,000 soldiers in its final offensive, an AP reporter who drove Monday from Tyre to the Israeli border and through several destroyed villages along the frontier saw only one Israeli tank.

Humanitarian groups sent convoys of food, water and medical supplies into the south, but the clogged roads slowed the effort. U.N. officials said 24 U.N. trucks took more than five hours to reach the port of Tyre from Sidon, a trip that normally takes 45 minutes.

Israel urged Lebanese to stay out of the conflict zone in south Lebanon, saying it was still dangerous because Israeli and Hezbollah fighters were in the area. "Of course, the army would not open fire on civilians in the area," said Capt. Jacob Dallal, an army spokesman.

The rush to return home came despite a standoff that threatened to keep the cease-fire from taking root. Israel threatened to retaliate against any attacks, while Nasrallah said the militia would consider Israeli troops legitimate targets until they leave.

In a letter sent to the prime ministers of Lebanon and Israel Sunday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the two countries to refrain from responding to any attacks "except where clearly required in immediate self-defense" and warned them against occupying additional territory.

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said that aside from the isolated skirmishes that killed six Hezbollah fighters, the cease-fire was holding and could have implications for future relations with Israel's neighbors. Both sides appeared under strict orders to avoid confrontation.

The slain militants "were very close, they were armed, and they posed a danger to the troops," Dallal said. "We're going to shoot anybody who poses an imminent threat to the troops."

Hezbollah was believed to have suffered heavy casualties - it reported only 68 fighters killed, but Israel said the number was closer to 400.

Olmert also claimed his army largely destroyed the Hezbollah arsenal in the conflict, which began when militants from the Shiite Muslim group crossed the border and kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.

But the guerrilla organization emerged with far broader support in Lebanon and the rest of the Arab world than it had going into the fight, meaning it will be harder for the Lebanese government to enforce international demands for Hezbollah's disarmament.

Now was not the time to debate the disarmament of his guerrilla fighters, Nasrallah asserted confidently after his forces stood toe-to-toe against Israel's vaunted military.

"Who will defend Lebanon in case of a new Israeli offensive?" he asked, sitting in front of Lebanese and Hezbollah flags. "The Lebanese army and international troops are incapable of protecting Lebanon."

But Nasrallah said he was open to dialogue about Hezbollah's weapons at the appropriate time. He also credited his group's weapons with proving to Israel that "war with Lebanon will not be a picnic. It will be very costly."

The militant Shiite Muslim group, sponsored by Iran and
Syria, claimed to have killed vast numbers of opponents. The Israelis said they lost 118 in combat.

The civilian toll was enormous - 692 in Lebanon and 39 in Israel - and damage to Lebanese infrastructure was sure to run into billions of dollars.

Whole towns and villages in the south were largely flattened, especially along the border with Israel and a broad swath of the Hezbollah dominated suburbs in south Beirut. Bridges and roads throughout the country were destroyed and the Beirut airport remained closed. Israel said it would continue its blockade of Lebanese ports but was no longer threatening to shoot any car that moved on the roads south of the Litani.

Jamila Marina screamed and collapsed when she saw her destroyed home in Yaroun, a mainly Christian village a few miles south of hard-hit Bint Jbail.

"Why did this happen. What have we done to deserve this!" she yelled.

Rosetta Ajaka, also just returned, found her badly damaged home had been used as a Hezbollah outpost. A rocket launcher still sat in the front garden.

The political fallout was significant.

The unity that has governed Israeli politics was expected to quickly fracture. Three Knesset members were ejected from the parliament during an Olmert speech Monday for heckling and several others had called for a commission of inquiry into the offensive.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora faced the threat of a government collapse as well, given the task of disarming Hezbollah fighters. The group has two Cabinet ministers and 14 votes in Parliament and could easily undo government unanimity when a vote is taken on the Hezbollah disarmament issue - as is demanded by the international community.

The dangers for Lebanese civilians were great as well. At least one child was killed and 15 people were wounded by ordnance that exploded as they returned to their homes in south Lebanon, security officials said.

Many of those filtering back in looked dazed, unable to recognize their neighborhoods.

"I just want to find my house," said Ahmad Maana, an old man who wandered back on foot after spending more than a week hiding in the nearby hills.

Officially, Israel has now accepted the UN ceasefire that calls for an end to all Israeli offensive military operations and Hizbollah attacks, and the Hizbollah have stated that they will abide by the ceasefire - providing no Israeli troops remain inside Lebanon. But 10,000 Israeli soldiers - the Israelis even suggest 30,000, although no one in Beirut takes that seriously - have now entered the country and every one of them is a Hizbollah target.

From this morning, Hizbollah's operations will be directed solely against the invasion force. And the Israelis cannot afford to lose 40 men a day. Unable to shoot down the Israeli F-16 aircraft that have laid waste to much of Lebanon, the Hizbollah have, for years, prayed and longed and waited for the moment when they could attack the Israeli army on the ground.

Now they are set to put their long-planned campaign into operation. Thousands of their members remain alive and armed in the ruined hill villages of southern Lebanon for just this moment and, only hours after their leader, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, warned Israel on Saturday that his men were waiting for them on the banks of the Litani river, the Hizbollah sprang their trap, killing more than 20 Israeli soldiers in less than three hours.

Israel itself, according to reports from Washington and New York, had long planned its current campaign against Lebanon - provoked by Hizbollah's crossing of the Israeli frontier, its killing of three soldiers and seizure of two others on 12 July - but the Israelis appear to have taken no account of the guerrilla army's most obvious operational plan: that if they could endure days of air attacks, they would eventually force Israel's army to re-enter Lebanon on the ground and fight them on equal terms.

Hizbollah's laser-guided missiles - Iranian-made, just as most Israeli arms are US-made - appear to have caused havoc among Israeli troops on Saturday, and their downing of an Israeli helicopter was without precedent in their long war against Israel

In theory, aid convoys will be able to move south today to the thousands of Lebanese Shia trapped in their villages but no one knows whether the Hizbollah will wait for several days - they, like the Israelis, are physically tired - to allow that help to reach the crushed towns.

Atrocities continue across Lebanon, the most recent being the attack on a convoy of cars carrying 600 Christian families from the southern town of Marjayoun. Led by soldiers of the Lebanese army, they trailed north on Saturday up the Bekaa valley only to be assaulted by Israeli aircraft. At least seven were killed, including the wife of the mayor, a Christian woman who was decapitated by a missile that hit her car.

In west Beirut yesterday, the Israeli air force destroyed eight apartment blocks in which six families were living. Twelve civilians were killed in southern Lebanon, including a mother, her children and their housemaid.

An Israeli was killed by Hizballoh's continued Katyusha fire across the border. The guerrilla army - "terrorists" to the Israelis and Americans but increasingly heroes across the Muslim world - have many dead to avenge, although their leadership seems less interested in exacting an eye for an eye and far more eager to strike at Israel's army.

At this fatal juncture in Middle East history - and no one should underestimate this moment's importance in the region - the Israeli army appears as impotent to protect its country as the Hizbollah clearly is to protect Lebanon.

But if the ceasefire collapses, as seems certain, neither the Israelis nor the Americans appear to have any plans to escape the consequences. The US saw this war as an opportunity to humble Hizbollah's Iranian and Syrian sponsors but already it seems as if the tables have been turned. The Israeli military appears to be efficient at destroying bridges, power stations, gas stations and apartment blocks - but signally inefficient in crushing the "terrorist" army they swore to liquidate.

"The Lebanese government is our address for every problem or violation of the [ceasefire] agreement," Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, said yesterday, as if realising the truce would not hold.

And that, of course, provides yet another excuse for Israel to attack the civilian infrastructure of Lebanon.

Far more worrying, however, are the vague terms of the UN Security Council's resolution on the multinational force supposed to occupy land between the Israeli border and the Litani river.

For if the Israelis and the Hizbollah are at war across the south over the coming weeks, what country will dare send its troops into the jungle that southern Lebanon will have become?

Tragically, and fatally for all involved, the real Lebanon war does indeed begin today.