UN refugee chief says Lebanon aid corridors vital

GENEVA, July 24 (Reuters) United Nations refugee chief Antonio Guterres insisted today that Israel allow access to tens of thousands of people driven from their homes by Israeli bombing in southern Lebanon.

''The plight of the displaced in Lebanon is growing more difficult by the hour and it is crucial that we get the humanitarian pipeline flowing now,'' the former Portuguese prime minister said in a statement from his Geneva office.

But before moving supplies waiting in Syria to Lebanon, the statement declared, his UNHCR agency ''urgently needs assurances of safe passage .'' The agency had positioned 500 tonnes of relief supplies -- including tents, mattresses, blankets, plastic sheeting, stoves and cooking sets -- inside the Syrian border with Lebanon, while more was ready in stockpiles in Kuwait and Iraq.

''It is frustrating that we cannot deliver this aid, particularly when there are thousands of uprooted civilians just a few hours away in Lebanon who desperately need it,'' he said.

''It is absolutely vital to grant the humanitarian community access to these people.'' Aid agencies have complained for days that Israel -- which has bombed roads from the Syrian border and from the centre to the south of Lebanon in its 13-day war against the Hizbollah militia -- is preventing aid convoys from moving.

They say that although none have been hit in Israeli attacks, shells have landed near trucks and even ambulances.

The UN estimates 700,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in Lebanon since Israel launched its mainly aerial and artillery assault against Hizbollah nearly two weeks ago.

Over 370 people have been killed in Lebanon and at least 37 Israelis have died since the conflict broke out after Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12.

REUTERS MQA RK2302