NO AGREEMENT ON MIDEAST CEASE-FIRE

Diplomats Can't Reach Agreement on Terms for Negotiated Mideast Cease-Fire, but Will Keep Working 

By KATHERINE SHRADER

ROME Jul 26, 2006 (AP)— Talks involving Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and counterparts from other countries bogged down Wednesday in apparent disagreement over what kind of cease-fire would be urged to end the Israeli-Hezbollah fighting.

Rice, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema joined Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora at a news conference. D'Alema said the participants agreed to work "immediately" for a cease-fire and Annan said any solution to the Mideast crisis should involve Iran and Syria.

Rice said the United States favors urgently ending the Israeli-Hezbollah fighting but that there cannot be a return to a status quo of political uncertainty and instability in Lebanon.

"There is much work to do and everyone has a role to play," Rice said.

A diplomat involved with the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity about the ongoing negotiations, said international leaders were struggling to reach agreement on a statement about the violence between Israel and the Hezbollah militia.

Saniora gave an impassioned speech before the news conference that prodded the international leaders to continue working, the source said. The diplomat said the sticking point is language about the terms under which fighting would end.

The source insisted on anonymity because discussions on a conference resolution were still ongoing.

Almost every nation attending the conference in Rome has pressed Rice to call for an immediate end to the fighting on the Israeli-Lebanese border.

But Rice stood her ground in two days of diplomacy in Lebanon and Israel and the West Bank. Rather than a quick fix, she has repeatedly said the region needs enduring solutions, and other U.S. officials have raised doubts about an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah fighters in the south of Lebanon.

The Rome meeting of European and moderate Arab officials was to discuss the fighting sparked by the July 12 Hezbollah abduction of two Israeli soldiers. Rice attended a morning meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema before the international conference was set to begin.

When asked if she planned to announce an international force for Lebanon, Rice smiled and wouldn't comment.

In a statement at the start of the conference, Annan called for an immediate cessation of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, calling for Hezbollah to stop its "deliberate targeting of Israeli population centers" and for Israel to end all bombing, blockades and ground operations.

He said "a key stipulation for such a halt in fighting would be that the parties must not, I repeat, must not take advantage of such a pause to conduct offense operations, redeploy or resupply."

And he said an international force will be vital to keeping peace.