Not welcome in Lebanon, Rice heads home Monday

Sun Jul 30, 4:07 PM ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Unwelcome in Lebanon after an Israeli bombing that killed dozens of children, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cut short her peace mission on Sunday without calling for an immediate ceasefire to end the war.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said he did not want her to come to his country for planned meetings on Sunday, saying that after Israel's air strike, he could not hold any talks on resolving the crisis before an immediate ceasefire.

Rice's renewed push to end fighting between Israel and Hizbollah was derailed by the bombing in southern Lebanon, which killed at least 54 people sheltering in a basement, 37 of them children.

"In the wake of the tragedy that the people and the government of Lebanon are dealing with today, I have decided to postpone my discussions in Beirut. In any case, my work is here (in Israel) today," Rice told reporters of the canceled Beirut trip.

Rice, who will leave for Washington on Monday after a week of Middle East diplomacy, insisted she had canceled the Lebanon trip and not the other way round. U.S. officials said they were still in close contact with Siniora's office.

A U.S. official said Rice wanted to go back to Washington to focus on getting a U.N. resolution for a "sustainable and durable" ceasefire.

She said she was "deeply saddened" by the Israeli bombing of the village of Qana in southern Lebanon, but did not call for an immediate ceasefire.

Rice said instead she would work "very hard" to try to end the hostilities. At least 542 people have been killed in Lebanon, though the health minister estimated the toll at 750 including unrecovered bodies. Fifty-one Israelis also have been killed.

"I think it is time to get to a ceasefire. We actually have to try and put one in place," Rice said.

But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, while voicing "deep sorrow" over the deaths, said Israel was not yet ready to stop its war against Hizbollah and told Rice that Israel needed a further 10-14 days to continue pounding the militias.

In a meeting with Olmert later on Sunday, Rice voiced her unhappiness over the air strike and discussed conditions for a ceasefire and the size and mandate for a foreign intervention force that could deploy in southern Lebanon, an Israeli political source said. Rice's staff declined comment.

STRONG WORDS

Rice was with Israel's defense minister when she heard of the bombing, but did not show public anger toward Israel for the attack. Nevertheless, U.S. officials said privately she had strong words with Olmert and made her distress clear.

Washington has been accused of siding with Israel by not calling for an immediate ceasefire and is isolated from many of its allies by this stand.

Both Israel and the United States have said a ceasefire would be meaningless unless Hizbollah could no longer carry out raids and rocket attacks and the Shi'ite militia could be eventually disarmed as demanded by a U.N. resolution.

Rice indicated there were still broad differences between the two sides over how to get to a ceasefire deal and what sequence of events should take place before any truce.

"We are also pushing for an urgent end to the current hostilities but the views of the parties on how to achieve this are different," she said.

A senior Bush administration official said Rice had made progress in getting both sides to agree on a political framework for a deal but he conceded their efforts had been "thrown off" by the bombing.

"It is easy to be frustrated ... I would have liked it to have gone the other way," said the official, who did not want to be named because Rice will deliver a statement before her departure on Monday.

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