Egeland calls for West Asia truce to boost aid

GENEVA, Aug 10 (Reuters) Jan Egeland, the United Nations emergency relief coordinator, today called for the Security Council to adopt quickly a resolution aimed at ending the war between Israel and Lebanon so as to allow in vital aid.

A ceasefire in the five-week old conflict would pave the way for a major aid operation for the ''besieged populations of southern Lebanon'', where he said that 120,000 civilians were in need of assistance.

Fuel especially is running desperately short in Lebanon, a month into Israel's conflict with Hizbollah guerrillas in the south, according to the top UN aid official.

''We hope and pray that the Security Council belatedly will be able to reach a Security Council resolution to end it today (Thursday),'' Egeland told a news conference in Geneva.

''That would be, as we see it, one month too late, but it would mean a dramatic turn if hostilities stop because we're (on) standby to immediately go with a major operation into the south and to help all of the civilian populations that are today besieged,'' he added.

Hizbollah guerrillas fought Israeli troops pushing deeper into southeast Lebanon today's, though an Israeli cabinet minister said plans for a deeper ground assault were on hold to give diplomacy a chance.

Israel's bombing of bridges and roads, and its virtual ''blanket denial'' of authorisation for aid convoys in the area, had severely hampered UN humanitarian efforts, Egeland said.

''At the same time of course, the rain of missiles into Israel (by Hizbollah) has gone on unabated and this spreads a sense of terror which northern Israel has not seen since the creation of the state of Israel,'' he said.

He said civilians were the ''big losers'' in the conflict, which has claimed 1,011 lives in Lebanon and 121 in Israel.

''It's a disgrace really, because the parties to the conflict, the Hizbollah and the Israelis, could give us access in a heartbeat, and then we could help 120,000 people in southern Lebanon,'' Egeland said.

''Even more critical than food in the next days and weeks is fuel... The national electricity grid will even halt if there is no fuel coming in soon,'' he said.

Four hospitals in the south had run out of fuel to run generators vital for providing treatment, he added.

Israeli officials have given the green light for two fuel tankers, but the ship owners do not feel they have adequate security guarantees, according to Egeland.

The 120,000 people in the south include 20,000 in the coastal town of Tyre, who he said were in increasingly desperate need after being cut off for days. ''There seems now to be a no-go order on Tyre as there is in most of the south,'' he said.

REUTERS MQA KP2259