West Asia fighting must stop if UN orders: Blair

San Francisco, July 31: British Prime Minister Tony Blair today said fighting between Israel and Hizbollah militants had to stop once the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution demanding a cease-fire.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called an urgent Security Council meeting today and urged its members to call for an immediate cease-fire and condemn an Israeli attack on the Lebanese village of Qana that killed at least 60 civilians, many of them women and children.

''I think there is a basis for an agreement that would allow us to get a UN resolution but we have to get this now,'' Blair, in San Francisco as part of a five-day US visit, told reporters traveling with him.

''We have to speed this entire process up, get a resolution now and on the passing and agreement on that resolution, then the hostilities have got to stop and stop on all sides,'' he said.

''What has happened in Qana shows this is a situation that simply cannot continue,'' Blair said, adding he had spoken to several leaders, including Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, with whom he was due to talk again later today.

Blair, who has come under strong criticism in Britain for supporting President George W Bush and refraining from calling for an immediate cease-fire, was at the White House on Friday and agreed with Bush to speed up diplomacy for a UN resolution.

In a joint statement issued by Blair and German Chancellor Angela Merkel after a telephone conversation, the two leaders called for the United Nations to work urgently to arrange a cease-fire.

''The tragic events today have underlined the urgency of the need for a cease-fire,'' the statement said.

''It is now necessary to work in New York on the preconditions for such a cease-fire, which is a political agreement based on the full implementation of resolution 1559.'' UN Security Council resolution 1559 led to the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon and called for the disarmament of militias a reference to Hizbollah.

The United States, which as one of the five permanent Security Council members can block and council action, has far been resisting pressure from its European and Arab allies to call for a cease-fire.

''This is an absolutely tragic situation but we have got to make sure that the discussion we are having and negotiations we are conducting do lead to a genuine cessation of hostilities in a way that allows to put an end to them for good. I think there is the basis for doing that,'' he said.

Reuters

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