US puts damper on new Lebanon force

UNITED NATIONS, July 17 (Reuters) British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the UN Security Council today to deploy a security force in Lebanon but the United States and Israel frowned on the idea.

World leaders at a Group of Eight summit meeting in St Petersburg had raised the possibility of a force, and Annan, after talks with Blair, said he would push ahead with the plan as a matter of urgency.

But John Bolton, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, raised a series of questions about the concept while Israel said it was too soon to talking of sending a force.

''I don't think we're at that stage yet. We're at the stage where we want to be sure that Hizbollah is not deployed at our northern border,'' Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said in Jerusalem.

Israeli forces bombarded Lebanon for a sixth-day on Monday in an operation that began after the militant group Hizbollah crossed into Israel and seized two soldiers, killing another eight.

Security Council members heard briefings on the crisis but took no decision pending an update later this week from a task force Annan sent to the region. Usually, peacekeepers do not go into a conflict until there is some kind of halt to hostilities.

''OPEN WAR'' Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N. undersecretary-general for political affairs, told the council ''we are now in a situation of 'open war''' in Lebanon.

More than 200 people, almost all of them civilians, have been killed in Israeli shelling and air strikes on Lebanese infrastructure as well as Hizbollah targets.

''We cannot see how this destruction contributed to the goal of ensuring that the government of Lebanon is able to exert its control over the country, particularly the south,'' Gambari said.

''On the contrary, we believe such destruction increases the apparent influence of the most radical elements and their supporters.'' More Reuters PKS GC0025