UN rights body calls emergency meet on Lebanon

GENEVA, Aug 7 (Reuters) The new United Nations Human Rights Council is expected to hold an emergency session in Geneva, possibly this week, to discuss the conflict in and around Lebanon, diplomatic sources said today.

The sources said the initiative came from Muslim states on the Council who are members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

There was no immediate confirmation from UN officials.

They said no official request had yet been received.

If held, the hearing would be the second emergency session since the 47-state body was launched in June to replace the old Human Rights Commission, which some countries and independent rights groupings argued had become ineffective.

The body has no powers to impose sanctions but its views can exert moral pressure on countries.

Diplomats said the new session would be likely to hear fierce condemnations of Israel over the bombing of Lebanon in its war against the Shi'ite Muslim Hizbollah militia.

The Council's first emergency session, in early July, was also called at the initiative of OIC members and also focused on Israel -- over its military operations against Palestinian militants in Gaza and the West Bank.

By majority vote, the Council demanded an end to the Israeli actions.

Last week, the UN's Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) -- made up of independent experts -- also held an emergency session on the situation in Lebanon at which Israel was bitterly criticised.

The decision to hold that session was taken at the insistence of experts from Muslim and other developing countries despite reservations voiced by the committee's Belgian chairman, Marc Bossuyt, and other Western members.

Israel's mission to the UN in Geneva denounced the CERD for ignoring what it called the suffering of Israelis in the current conflict because of Hizbollah rocket attacks.

Today, Pakistani committee expert Abdul Sattar -- backed by Senegal, Morocco and China -- called on the CERD chairman to issue a statement on the Lebanon situation.

Sattar said the statement should ''express deep grief and outrage at the massive denial of human rights'' caused by actions which Israel says are aimed at destroying the military capacity of Hizbollah.

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