Bridge bombing paralyses Lebanon aid pipeline

BEIRUT, Aug 4 (Reuters) Israel's bombing of key highway bridges in northern Lebanon and strikes at a Hizbollah stronghold in south Beirut paralysed United Nations aid convoys today, but other aid continued to arrive by air and sea.

Air strikes against four bridges on the main coastal highway linking Beirut to Syria stalled an eight-truck convoy carrying 150 tonnes of relief and cut what the United Nations called its ''umbilical cord'' for aid supplies.

The bridge at Maameltein, just north of Beirut, was split along its centre by a huge crater which partially engulfed the crushed shell of a minivan. Further north, another bridge lay stretched out in the valley it once spanned.

''The whole road is gone,'' said Astrid van Genderen Stort, senior information officer for the UNHCR refugee agency.

''It's really a major setback because we used this highway to move staff and supplies into the country.'' The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) called off planned convoys southwards to the port city of Tyre and Rashidiyeh after air strikes on a southern Beirut suburb prevented drivers from reaching the convoys' departure point.

A third convoy carrying food, water and sanitation equipment south to the town of Jezzine departed as planned.

The International Organisation for Migration said it had to postpone evacuating 2,000 more people, including 720 Filipino and Sri Lankan workers, on the coastal road this weekend.

''There is nowhere to put them in Beirut,'' said spokeswoman Jemini Pandya. ''We urgently have to find a way to get them out.'' The UNHCR was also forced to put off trips around Beirut to assess the needs and deliver aid to up to 400,000 people living with host families or in schools and parks in the area.

Estimates of the total number of displaced people range from 800,000 to one million, with around a fifth of that number believed to have fled to neighbouring Syria.

RELIEF CONTINUES Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior steamed into Beirut port with 40 tonnes of aid for Medecins Sans Frontieres.

The International Committee of the Red Cross received 100 tonnes of food, sleeping mats, kitchen sets and other supplies and said it made at least three forays into hard-hit areas in the eastern Bekaa valley and around the port of Tyre.

Ten tonnes of tents and shelter materials from China came by plane from Jordan, as did an equal amount of high-energy biscuits and medical supplies from the WFP.

''Thank God. The fact that our northern lifeline has been cut makes this flight all the more critical,'' said WFP spokesman Robin Lodge. ''But still, it's just a drop in the ocean.'' UN Children's Fund UNICEF began immunising tens of thousands of Lebanese children to help prevent epidemics of diseases like measles and polio.

The UN has asked for 150 million dollars in emergency assistance but said it had so far received only 25 million dollars in pledges.

It also warned a looming fuel shortage could bring power plants, hospitals and water pumping stations to a halt.

''The lack of fuel for power plants and other utilities is dire,'' said UN spokesman for Lebanon Khaled Mansour. ''It could bring the country to a grinding halt in days.'' Israel has agreed to let two tankers pass through its naval blockade but their owners have refused to proceed without an actual written guarantee of safety for war insurance purposes.

REUTERS SHB RN2158