Lebanon: Hezbollah backs peace proposals
BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice returned to the Middle East Saturday, hours after Israel rejected a U.N. call for a three-day cease-fire.
Rice is to meet Saturday night with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem, the first stop in her latest bid to negotiate an end to fighting.
It has not been announced when she might travel to Beirut to meet with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
The United States does not support calls for an immediate cease-fire. The Bush administration has said Israel must be able to sufficiently weaken Hezbollah forces or hostilities would only start up again.
U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland appealed for the cease-fire "so that we can evacuate wounded, evacuate children, evacuate the elderly and the disabled from the crossfire in Lebanon."
A third of the people killed in Lebanon have been children, he said.
Israel government spokesman Avi Pazner said Israel rejects a temporary cease-fire for getting civilians out of southern Lebanon.
"There is no need for a 72-hour temporary cease-fire because Israel has opened a humanitarian corridor to and from Lebanon," Pazner told reporters.
"The problem is completely different. It is the Hezbollah who is deliberately preventing the transfer of medical aid and of food to the population of southern Lebanon in order to create a humanitarian crisis which they want to blame Israel for."
Deal in works to end crisis
Meanwhile, Hezbollah representatives and Lebanese cabinet ministers have reached an agreement in general -- but with some major reservations -- on a proposal to end the crisis, high-ranking Lebanese government officials say.
Rice said she has only read news reports about the plan but said it appeared to have "some very good elements."
En route from Asia to the Middle East, Rice told reporters she expected the weekend talks to be intense and emotional because both sides are "under extreme pressure in a difficult set of circumstances."
She said she was not bringing a comprehensive plan to the table.
Israeli spokesman Pazner said he believes her visit with Olmert will be fruitful.
"This time, she comes to present concrete ideas," he said. "She will be able to tell us exactly what kind of international force has to be sent here and what kind of resolution has to be passed by the United Nations."
The Israelis have called for an international force to police a buffer zone just north of the border with Lebanon to ensure that Hezbollah cannot use the southern part of the country to launch rockets.
Israel began its operations against in southern Lebanon on July 12, after the Iranian-backed Hezbollah launched a cross-border raid, killing three soldiers and capturing two others. Five more soldiers were also killed.
Since then, Lebanese Internal Security Forces said Saturday that 421 people have been killed and 1,661 have been wounded in Lebanon.
Israeli officials said Friday that 52 Israelis -- 33 soldiers and 19 civilians -- have died and 1,233 Israelis -- 110 soldiers and 1,123 civilians -- have been wounded in the fighting.
Hezbollah has not released any casualty figures, but Israeli military sources estimated Friday they have killed about 200 Hezbollah fighters.
Lebanese cease-fire plan
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