Olmert, meeting Rice, vows to press Hizbollah war

JERUSALEM, July 25 (Reuters) Israel agreed today to allow aid airlifts to Lebanon but said it was determined to pursue a war against Hizbollah that key ally the United States has sanctioned despite a heavy civilian death toll.

After meeting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said both agreed that disarming Hizbollah and deploying an international force in its place in southern Lebanon were key to resolving the two-week-old crisis.

Israel said it would hold a ''security strip'' inside southern Lebanon until that force arrived.

The war will take centre stage at an international conference in Rome tomorrow where Arab and some European nations are expected to call for an immediate ceasefire over Washington's objections. Rice later flew to Italy.

On the battlefield, Israeli troops and tanks fought Hizbollah inside the guerrilla stronghold town of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon. Israel said it killed up to 30 fighters.

Israeli warplanes bombarded Hizbollah's Beirut stronghold and launched 100 strikes across south Lebanon. One attack killed a family of seven, Lebanese security sources said.

Hizbollah rockets killed a 15-year-old girl in an Arab Israeli town in the Galilee, medics said.

A total of 411 people in Lebanon and 42 Israelis have been killed in a conflict that erupted after Hizbollah abducted two Israeli soldiers in a July 12 cross-border raid.

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah said he feared Israel's offensive could ignite a wider war in West Asia.

But Rice, who visited bomb-battered Beirut yesterday, said it was time for a ''new West Asia''.

''A durable solution will be one that strengthens the forces of peace and democracy in the region,'' she said.

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