Israel sets cease-fire terms

2006-07-17 17:27

Beirut - Diplomatic efforts to end Israeli-Hezbollah fighting gained traction on Monday, with Israeli officials saying the country would agree to halt fighting if its two captured soldiers were returned and Islamic guerrillas withdrew from the border.

Publicly, the officials continued to insist their goal was to dismantle Hezbollah.

But senior aides to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert office said he told his Italian counterpart, Romano Prodi, that Israel would accept cease-fire terms of Hezbollah releasing the Israeli soldiers and withdrawing from the border.

On Sunday, Lebanese officials said that Israel had sent the terms of a possible cease-fire through Italian mediators.

The terms were the release of the two captured soldiers, and a Hezbollah pullback to roughly 30km from the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Hezbollah-patron Iran, meanwhile, said a cease-fire was feasible and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special political adviser emerged from talks with Lebanon's prime minister to say he would present Israel "concrete ideas" to end the fighting.

"We have made some promising first efforts on the way forward," Vijay Nambiarhe told reporters, while warning that "much diplomatic work needs to be done" before the conflict ends.

Iran's foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki - in Damascus, Syria for talks with vice-president Farouk al-Sharaa - said a cease-fire and prisoner exchange would be acceptable and fair .

"We believe that we should think of an acceptable and fair (deal) to resolve this," he said.

"In fact, there can be a cease-fire followed by a prisoner swap."

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for sending international forces to southern Lebanon.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would consider dispatching troops, and the European Union announced it was considering a peacekeeping force as well.

AP

- AP