"Those places who made those bombs should have a serious talk with Israel on the use of such bombs that are making our lives so miserable trying to help the Lebanese people.

"I hope the US will talk to the Israelis on that, because it is an outrage that we have 100,000 bombs among where children, women, shopkeepers and farmers are now going to tread," Egeland said, adding that he had not been able to get an explanation from the Israelis so far.

Egeland said he would launch an appeal for more money for mine clearance when he attends Thursday's conference in Stockholm on Lebanon's reconstruction.

Representatives of more than a dozen organisations are also expected to attend the one-day meeting, the first donors' conference to be held since the Lebanon ceasefire two weeks ago.

In Geneva, Chris Clark, head of the UN Mine Action Service in southern Lebanon, said there had been a total of 59 confirmed casualties, including 13 deaths, caused by the explosives since the end of hostilities on August 14.

The United Nations has asked Israel to provide a list of sites targeted during its month-long offensive in Lebanon, something which is crucial for the clean up.

Israel and other countries which have used the weapons, notably the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo, often face criticism because the weapons can kill indiscriminately.

Unexploded bomblets, which are often scattered over a large area, can pose a deadly threat to civilians, especially children, for months and even years after a conflict.

The Israeli military is believed to have fired around 2,000-3,000 rounds of heavier ammunition a day -- not only cluster bombs but also artillery shells and more conventional bombs -- in the early stages of its campaign to dislodge the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah fighters.

Jan Egeland, the UN emergency relief coordinator, has earlier accused Israel of immoral use of deadly cluster bombs during Lebanon conflict.

According to Jan Egeland, UN mine experts have identified more than 350 cluster bomb strike locations in Lebanon. He says the sites are contaminated with more than 100,000 unexploded bomb lets. However, international law bans the use of such weapons in civilian areas.

During the press conference, Annan also called for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, noting that "We need to implement the Resolution 1701 and to capitalize on building relations between Israel and Lebanon." He added that "this is the opportunity to move things for normal relations between Israel and Lebanon, if Resolution 1701 is implemented in its entirety".

The UN Secretary General is on a regional tour which includes Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Qatar, Palestine, Iran, Turkey, and Israel, trying to shore up a cease-fire that ended 34 days of fighting between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.

Annan said he would ask Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in talks on Wednesday to lift Israel's air and sea blockade of Lebanon, imposed at the start of the war nearly seven weeks ago.

Speaking after a meeting with Defense Minister Amir Peretz in Jerusalem, Annan appealed for all sides to work together to ensure the peace holds and "not risk another explosion in six years or 20 years."

Peretz said Tuesday following talks with Annan that he hopes Israel will soon be able to lift its air and sea blockade of Lebanon, imposed at the start of its 34-day conflict with Hezbollah that ended with a United Nations-brokered truce on August 14.

"Israel will pull out once there is a reasonable level of forces there," he said.

The defense minister did not clarify what it would take for Israel to lift the embargo, but Israel has demanded that Lebanese and international forces take control of the Lebanon-Syrian border to prevent Hezbollah guerrillas from smuggling in arms.

The UN chief said he spoke with Peretz about lifting the blockade "as soon as possible in order to allow Lebanon to go on with normal commercial activities and also rebuild its economy."

Annan also met with the families of three kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldiers Tuesday night, hours after calling for their release and for the lfiting of the blockade on Lebanon.

Reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were snatched by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid on July 12, which sparked the 34-day conflict ended on August 14 by a UN brokered cease-fire. Corporal Gilad Shalit was abducted by Palestinian militants in late June, after they tunneled under the Gaza-Israel border and raided his IDF base.

Goldwasser's wife, Karnit, told Israel TV after the meeting with Annan that he gave them no new information about the fate of their loved ones.

"But the good news was that we got a personal pledge from the secretary-general of the UN that he accepts the mission to get the three kidnapped soldiers home and that's a really big thing," she said.

The relatives said they had heard lip service from many international officials about efforts to get their relatives freed.

"We asked him to be the one to start turning words into deeds and bring about their return home, all three," Karnit Goldwasser said. "He spoke to Lebanese cabinet ministers from Hezbollah and asked them to help him."

The families of the three men also appealed for word on the soldier's conditions.

"They must first of all give us a sign of life. [Annan] must act toward that. It's a moral demand that's basic in any negotiations," Regev's brother Benny said before the meeting.

They also wanted Annan to back down from his demands that Israel lift its blockade of Lebanon, for fear that an end to the siege would allow Hezbollah to move its captives out of Lebanon.

Israel's ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, said Tuesday the meeting between Annan and the families carried important symbolism.

"I hope that he will leave here with a real feeling of obligation, of a moral mission to do everything he can - and he is going to several capitals in which there is influence on this matter - to bring about Udi [Ehud], Eldad and Gilad's speedy return home," Gillerman told Israel TV.

Meanwhile, veteran civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson, speaking in Beirut, said he was told that the three soldiers were alive during his meetings with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Khaled Mashaal, political leader of Hamas, in Damascus.

"The Hamas leadership says that the soldier they are holding is alive and well," Jackson told reporters in Beirut, where he was meeting political and religious leaders.

"The president [Assad] believes that the two held somewhere by Hezbollah are alive," he added.

Syria and Iran are the main backers of Hezbollah.
"Obviously under any kind of international law, we should have been given a sign of life immediately. But these are terrorists," government spokeswoman Miri Eisen said. "Though we'd like to believe them, we continue to demand the unconditional release of all three."

Annan arrived in Israel on Tuesday afternoon, after a visit to Lebanon during which he called on Hezbollah to free the two IDF soldiers it is holding and for Israel to end the sea and air blockade imposed on Lebanon at the start of the conflict.

"We need to resolve the issue of the abducted soldiers very quickly," Annan said. "We need to deal with the lifting of the embargo - sea, land and air - which for the Lebanese is a humiliation and an infringement on their sovereignty."

"I think the time has come for the siege to be lifted. The Lebanese have shown they're serious about the implementation of [UN resolution] 1701 in all the deployments and efforts they have made," he added.

Israel has insisted it will maintain the restrictions until an arms embargo against Hezbollah is enforced.

The UN chief has said there is a high risk of renewed hostilities unless the resolution is fully implemented.

Families pin hopes on Annan

Ahead of their meeting with Annan, the families of Regev and Goldwasser said Tuesday they hoped the UN chief would help secure their safe and quick release.

"We ask [Annan] to act toward releasing our soldiers," Regev's brother, Benny, said before the meeting with Annan.

"The UN decided that Lebanon and the Lebanese government and Hezbollah must release the soldiers without any conditions. This was the resolution. We expect him to act toward achieving it."

The family members also appealed for word on the soldiers' conditions.

"They must first of all give us a sign of life. [Annan] must act toward that. It's a moral demand that's basic in any negotiations," Benny Regev said.

"I know that Kofi Annan is an important man... he has a lot of power and influence and he can speak to the government in Lebanon," said Karnit Goldwasser.

Goldwasser's mother, Miki, said she would be open to talks and a prisoner exchange with Hezbollah.

South Lebanon visit

Earlier Tuesday, Annan flew to south Lebanon where up to 15,000 UN peacekeepers are expected to be sent to bolster the 16-day-old truce between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.

Italy's first contingent of 800-1,000 troops set sail on what Rome said would be a "long and risky" mission. The aircraft carrier Garibaldi met four other Navy ships off the Mediterranean port of Brindisi for an official send-off for the force.

France promised to send a 900-strong battalion before the middle of September, with a second battalion to follow.

Annan also visited the base of the currently 2,000-strong UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in Naqoura.

The UN chief was briefed Tuesday by French Major General Alain Pellegrini, the UNIFIL commander, and other top officials, then reviewed an honor guard of UN troops in blue berets standing at attention on the green lawn inside the UN's white-walled compound.

He laid a wreath at a monument for nearly 300 peacekeepers killed in Lebanon since UNIFIL deployed here in 1978. Muslim and Christian clergymen said prayers, and Annan stood in silence in front of a display of portraits of those killed, including four UNIFIL members killed in an Israel Air Force strike on their base in Khiam on July 25.

Annan is expected to travel to Syria and Iran, Hezbollah's chief allies, later in the week.

The United Nations hopes to create a buffer zone in south Lebanon free of Israeli or Hizbollah forces and policed by up to 15,000 UN troops and a similar number of Lebanese soldiers.

It is hoping that Muslim nations will contribute troops to balance the 7,000 or so pledged by European countries.

Potential Muslim contributors include Indonesia, Malaysia
and Bangladesh, although Israel has objected to their taking part because they have no diplomatic ties with Israel.

"The UN should take steps to convince Israel to be rational in seeing the contribution of Indonesian peacekeeping troops," said Indonesia's chief security minister Widodo Adi Sutjipto, whose country has offered 1,000 troops.

"We agreed that with 5,000 UN troops and 16,000 Lebanese soldiers who will go down south, it would be a credible force to allow the Israelis to pull out entirely," he said.

"I hope that one week up to 10 days from now, we will have 5,000. At that point, the Israelis will be forced to pull out. It is very important because the situation is fragile. As long as there are Israeli troops on Lebanese territory, there are some Lebanese who are going to consider that they are being occupied," he said.

"I think we need to move as soon as possible," said Annan, who again called upon Israel to lift the sea and air blockade on Lebanon.

"We need to start lifting the blockade sooner because quite frankly I don't think the situation will hold until then," Annan said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday ruled out lifting the blockade unless the UN resolution 1701 is fully implemented.

Resolution 1701, unanimously adopted on Aug. 11 by the UN Security Council, calls for a strengthened UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) from 2,000 to 15,000 troops, the deployment of the Lebanese army there, the withdrawal of Israeli forces, and the disarmament of Hezbollah.

The UNIFIL will deploy 5,000 peacekeepers by the end of September, according to the chief of the UN peacekeeping operation, Jean-Marie Guehenno.

"On Friday (Sept. 1st), the first troops -- Italian troops -- will start to deploy, which means we should reach, within a month, a level of 4,000 to 5,000 men or a doubling of the force," the French newspaper Le Monde quoted Guehenno on Thursday.

Annan is on a visit to the Middle East to try to consolidate the fragile ceasefire in Lebanon. After Lebanon, Israel, the West Bank and Jordan, he is expected to be in Damascus on Thursday for talks with Syrian leaders. He will also visit Iran, Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

According to the report, Olmert's view was that international peacekeepers will be stationed along the Syria-Lebanon border.

Annan, for his part, advised flexibility, arguing against a concrete demand for deployment of international troops on the Syrian border, which Hezbollah has long used as the supply route for arms and other material, much of it from Iran, said the report.

Annan, meanwhile, held that an effective mechanism for dealing with the issue should be set up in partnership with the government of Lebanon, hoping Israel would withdraw all its forces from Lebanon within days or weeks, once 5000 UN peacekeepers are on the ground.

Olmert, however, told the news conference that Israel would only lift its air and sea blockade over Lebanon once all the provisions of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which governs the Aug. 14 ceasefire, were in place.

The Resolution 1701 on ending hostilities in Lebanon, approved by both Israel and Lebanon, calls for Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon and authorizes an increase of the existing UN force there to 15,000 troops to help Lebanese troops take control of southern Lebanon after Israel withdraws.

"We have about 2500 troops on the ground and we are going to try to double that number and get to 5000 in the coming days and weeks," Annan said after a meeting with Olmert.

Earlier on Wednesday morning, Annan held about an hour of talks with Olmert at the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem, during which he pressed Israel to lift its six-week air and sea blockade of Lebanon, which was imposed at the start of the 34-day-long war with Hezbollah.

Later on Wednesday, Annan is expected to meet with Israeli Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

Afterwards, he will go to the West Bank city of Ramallah for talks with Palestinian leaders and officials.

Israel is the second leg of Annan's Mideast regional tour after Lebanon, which will also take him to Syria or Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan.