Israeli warplanes battered Lebanon Tuesday killing 26 people and more Hezbollah rockets hit the Israeli city of Haifa.

Nine family members, including children, were killed and four wounded in an air strike on their house in the village of Aitaroun. Four people were killed in other strikes in the south.

A truck carrying medical supplies donated by the United Arab Emirates was hit and its driver killed on the Beirut-Damascus highway, the Health Ministry said.

An air strike on a Lebanese army barracks east of Beirut killed 11 soldiers, including four officers, and wounded 30.

Hezbollah, a Shi'ite Muslim group backed by Syria and Iran, said one of its fighters had been killed, but gave no details.

Up to six rockets slammed into Haifa, Israel's third largest city and now a favored target for Hezbollah. No casualties were reported. A rocket salvo killed eight people in Haifa on Sunday.

Israel's army refused to rule out a ground invasion. "At this stage we do not think we have to activate massive ground forces into Lebanon, but if we have to do this, we will," Moshe Kaplinsky, Israel's deputy army chief, told Israel Radio.

He said the offensive, launched after Hezbollah fighters seized two Israeli soldiers and killed eight in a cross-border raid on July 12, would require weeks to complete its goals.

Another senior Israeli officer said Hezbollah rocket attacks had begun to ease off, but that the army needed perhaps three to four weeks to destroy the group's military stockpiles. A Hezbollah spokesman dismissed the claim.

Annan calls for bigger int'l force

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for a bigger, more robust international force to stabilize southern Lebanon and buy time for the Lebanese Government to disarm Hezbollah guerrillas.

Shrugging off US and Israeli reluctance, Annan said he expected European troops to join the proposed force in a bid to end the fighting and prevent a wider Middle East conflagration.

Annan and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have urged the UN Security Council to deploy a security force in Lebanon but Israel says it is too early to discuss it and Washington has questioned how it could stop Hezbollah from attacking Israel.

"It is urgent that the international community acts to make a difference on the ground," Annan said in Brussels, suggesting a force that would operate differently from toothless UN peacekeepers who have patrolled south Lebanon since 1978.

Israel's FM sets terms for ceasefire

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Tuesday Israel would be ready to call a ceasefire with Hezbollah if its captured soldiers are returned, the Lebanese army deploys along the countries' shared border and the future disarmament of the militia can be guaranteed.

After a week of fighting, Livni said the time for diplomacy was at hand, though she added that Israel's military operations would not end until its goals are reached.

Livni's remarks after a meeting with a UN delegation to the region were the first indication that the sides were making efforts to end the violence.

"We are beginning a diplomatic process alongside the military operation that will continue," she said. "The diplomatic process is not meant to shorten the window of time of the army's operation but rather is meant to be an extension of it and to prevent a need for future military operations."

Livni also gave a tacit endorsement for an international force in Lebanon that could temporarily help the Lebanese army enforce a ceasefire.

Securing south Lebanon "requires activity by the Lebanese Government, with the oversight (and) assistance of the international community," Livni said.

Livni also said, however, that Israel's experience with the current UN force stationed in south Lebanon was "not satisfactory" and that Israel prefers no such force in the long-term.

In recent days, Israeli officials have sent conflicting signals about whether Israel would demand Hezbollah's disarmament as a condition for a ceasefire.

Livni's comments indicated Israel would accept future disarmament, provided that Lebanon immediately deploy its own troops along the border to prevent any future rocket attacks against northern Israel.

Thousands of foreigners flee Lebanon

Governments around the world have been scrambling to evacuate their nationals from Lebanon as the intense Israeli offensive in the country continued Tuesday. 

The United States ordered five warships to head for Lebanon Tuesday in its first major evacuation of Americans. The US navy said three amphibious ships, a helicopter carrier and a dock landing ship would be involved.

A cruise ship commissioned by the United States, that can carry up to 1,000 people, left Cyprus earlier Tuesday and headed to the Lebanese coast. Some of the 8,000 Americans registered as living in Lebanon were expected to board the vessel later in the day, a diplomatic source in Nicosia said.

Britain said two aircraft carriers were among six of its ships in the region ready to start rescuing its citizens from the violence.

Other European nations mustered boats and planes to reach their nationals stranded by the bombing of Beirut airport and the destruction of roads and bridges.

Countries from as far away as Chile were making arrangements to reach their citizens.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said a fleet of ships was in the region and ready to take up position. British ministers said around 12,000 British nationals and another 10,000 of dual nationality would be evacuated.

France said it had transported 800 of its citizens by boat to Larnaca in Cyprus and would return to collect some of the 6,000 other French nationals.

A ferry sent by Sweden was expected to pick up around 1,500 this morning. A Greek navy frigate arrived in Larnaca port Tuesday, carrying around 400 Europeans from Beirut.

Many countries were sending planes to Damascus to collect some of the thousands arriving there by car. A Spanish airforce Boeing 707 flew 113 people out of the Syrian capital and more than 152 were being transported from Amman, the Spanish Foreign Ministry said.

Russia sent Emergencies Ministry aircraft to pick up its evacuees and nationals from neighbouring former Soviet states.

(China Daily July 19, 2006)