US, France step up talks to finish West Asia measure

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 4 (Reuters) The United States and France today put finishing touches on a UN resolution calling for an end to fighting as the first step to a political settlement in the Israel-Lebanon conflict.

Once they reach agreement, which may occur over the weekend, a UN Security Council vote could be held within 24 hours. But with fighting raging, an end to the fighting still appears questionable, despite regular contacts by Washington and Paris with Israel and Lebanon.

US Ambassador John Bolton, after several hours of talks today with France's UN ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, said progress had been made but a text was being sent back to Washington and Paris for review.

Ghananian UN Ambassador Nana Effah-Apenteng, this month's council president, said there was a possibility the council would meet over the weekend, depending on the negotiations.

''Council members will do whatever is needed to accommodate negotiations,'' Effah-Apenteng said after the 15-member body received a briefing on the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon.

''With bridges and roads bombed, it is not easy to provide food and water and help to those in need,'' he said, adding that even UN offices would run out of stocks in three or four days.

The negotiations, based on a draft from France, center on specific demands for a cease-fire and whether only offensive operations should be outlawed or a flat ''suspension of hostilities'' and the nature of an eventual multinational force in Lebanon, that France may lead.

The United States also wants monitoring of Lebanon's border with Syria to make sure Hizbollah is not supplied with new arms, diplomats close to the talks said. There is also a dispute over how and when there should be a delineation of Lebanon's disputed borders with Syria.

France's draft resolution calls for existing UN peacekeepers and Lebanon's army to monitor the truce while the United States favors the Israeli army staying in southern Lebanon until an international force arrives.

Also unclear is when and by whom would Hizbollah guerrillas be disarmed. The militia's chief spokesman said on Thursday that Hizbollah would not approve a cessation of hostilities until Israeli troops are out of Lebanon.

A second resolution is envisaged a week or two after the first is adopted, setting down conditions for a permanent cease-fire and authorizing an international force.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice late yesterday predicted a deal within days.

In comments to CNN, Rice said fighting should stop immediately but some steps would have to take occur over a longer period ''in order not to have a return to the status quo ante and just a cease-fire, that like so many cease-fires in the Middle East, falls apart practically the minute that it's in place.'' Reuters SHB GC2232