UN Council to review draft West Asia resolution

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 5 (Reuters) The United States and France today reached agreement on a UN Security Council resolution calling for an end to fighting between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas as the first step toward a political settlement of the conflict, France and the United States said.

The 15-member UN Security Council will receive the text and review it at 3 pm, the United Nations announced. A vote is expected within the next few days.

But two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the measure would allow Israel, which has troops in southern Lebanon, to respond to attacks launched by Hizbollah militia.

A communique issued by French President Jacques Chirac's office in Paris said the draft calls for a ''full cessation of hostilities'' and a commitment to work ''on a permanent cease-fire for a long-term solution.'' But it does not give a time for a cessation of hostilities.

France's draft resolution had called for an ''immediate'' end to the fighting.

The negotiations were conducted by telephone between London and Paris and in New York between US Ambassador John Bolton and his French counterpart, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere.

Israeli and Lebanese officials were contacted by the negotiators.

''We have reached agreement with the French on a draft resolution,'' Mr Bolton told reporters. ''We are prepared to move as quickly as other members of the council want to move.'' He said he assumed that once the text was distributed, council members would send it to their governments and come back with agreement or changes.

''We are prepared to continue to work tomorrow (Sunday) to make progress on the resolution,'' Mr Bolton said.

A second resolution is envisaged a week or two after the first is adopted, setting down conditions for a permanent cease-fire and authorising an international force, which France may lead if fighting stops.

Unclear is the fate of the two Israeli soldiers, whose capture by Hizbollah sparked the conflict more than three weeks ago. Israel's ambassador to the United States, Daniel Ayalon, told Reuters in an interview on Friday his country would only agree to an end to fighting if Hizbollah guerrillas released them.

And a Hizbollah spokesman has said there would be no end to the fighting as long as Israeli troops remained in Lebanon.

REUTERS SHB RK2130