Israel pounds Lebanon, thrusts across border

BEIRUT, Aug 1: Israel thrust into southern Lebanon today and pounded towns and villages in two other areas, meeting fierce resistance from Hizbollah guerrillas who reportedly killed three soldiers.

Three weeks after the war erupted when Hizbollah snatched two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid, a senior Israeli cabinet member said the army needed up to two more weeks to finish its offensive.

European Union president Finland, echoing the growing international calls for a ceasefire, said Israel's plans to sweep further into Lebanon were unacceptable and would only fuel more Arab support for Hizbollah fighters.

Israel wants to push Hizbollah back and stop it blasting rockets over the border. However, an Israeli cabinet minister said there was no way its forces could destroy all the missiles, comments appeared aimed at lowering Israeli public expectations.

Artillery shells rained down on the border area around Aita al-Shaab, where Hizbollah said it had destroyed a tank in battles with Israeli troops.

Al Arabiya television said three Israeli soldiers died in the those clashes, which would be the first casualties since Israel lost nine soldiers on July 26. Hizbollah said it had inflicted 20 Israeli casualties in Aita al-Shaab.

The Israeli army said 20 Hizbollah fighters were killed in south Lebanon in the last 48 hours. Hizbollah denied suffering any serious casualties.

A ''limited'' force of Israeli troops also crossed into Lebanon near the village of Houla, just south of the Kafr Kila area where there was fighting and intense shelling, a spokesman for the U N peacekeeping force said.

Israel has rejected calls for a truce as world powers differ over the urgency of a ceasefire.

Most Arab and European governments have insisted on an immediate end to fighting but Israel's closest ally, Washington, has said any ceasefire must be part of a broader deal that ends the threat to the Jewish state from Hizbollah.

U N TALKS POSTPONED The intense fighting came the same day as Israel's security cabinet approved an expansion of its military operations in southern Lebanon. This would entail a military ground sweep 6-7 km into Lebanon, a political source said. ''I reckon the time required for the (army) to complete the job, and by that I mean that the area in which we want the international force to deploy is cleansed of Hizbollah, will take around 10 days to two weeks,'' Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told Army Radio.

The United Nations has postponed discussion on mobilising an international force for Lebanon until at least Thursday, to wait for more progress towards a political solution.

Israeli aircraft bombed eastern Lebanon near Syria on the second day of what it had said would be a 48-hour partial halt to air strikes, Lebanese security sources and witnesses said.

The raids were aimed at ''preventing the transferring of weaponry'' to Hizbollah, the army said. Israel had said it would use air strikes against Hizbollah and to back ground forces.

Syria, which backs Hizbollah, ordered its military to raise readiness, pledging not to end support for resistance to Israel.

AID CONVOY SCRAPPED

At least 605 people have been killed in Lebanon, although the health minister puts the toll at 750 including bodies still buried under rubble. Fifty-one Israelis have also been killed.

The southern village of Qana today mourned the deaths of at least 54 Lebanese civilians, including 37 children, killed in an Israeli air strike on Sunday.

Despite international condemnation of the Qana attack and the U S Secretary of States Condoleezza Rice's view that a ceasefire could be reached this week, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said there was no sign fighting would end soon.

The United Nations was forced to scrap an aid convoy destined for a village close to Lebanon's southern border because it could not get security clearance from Israel.

The Israeli army was calling up at least 15,000 more reservists to support the ground operations, Israel Radio said.

Haaretz newspaper said Israel was ready to swap two Lebanese prisoners for the two captured soldiers as part of a ceasefire agreement. Israel had said it would not negotiate a prisoner exchange and demanded the release of the two.

In Iran, another staunch ally of Hizbollah, influential hardline clerical politician Ahmad Jannati called on Muslim countries to send arms for the fight against Israel.

REUTERS