The bombing on the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, a Hezbollah stronghold, ended a 24-hour lull that coincided with a lightning visit to the region by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

With no end in sight to warfare that has already claimed at least 390 lives in Lebanon alone, Defense Minister Amir Peretz warned Israel could establish its own security zone in southern Lebanon if multinational troops were not deployed.

In the latest bloodshed, an entire family of seven was killed when an Israeli missile slammed into their home in southern Lebanon while troops besieged a key border town where Hezbollah has a military headquarters.

"Israel is determined to carry on the fight against Hezbollah," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at a press conference with Rice. "We are not fighting the Lebanese government or the Lebanese people. We are fighting against Hezbollah."

Rice, who left the region for Rome to attend a international meeting on the crisis, said it was "time for a new Middle East" and underlined the US stance that an immediate ceasefire would only put off a long-term settlement.

"A durable solution will be one that strengthens the forces of peace and democracy in the region," she said. "The people of this region, Israelis, Lebanese, and the Palestinians have lived too long in fear, and in terror, and in violence."

On a surprise visit to Lebanon Monday, Rice said she was "deeply concerned" about the plight of civilians, who have been forced to flee their homes in their hundreds of thousands and make up the bulk of the dead.

The United States, Israel's top ally which has come under fire for failing to act quickly to end the offensive, delivered a first shipment of aid Tuesday under a 30-million-dollar package.

US President George W. Bush said he saw no contradiction in sending assistance in the face of Israeli strikes while at the same time speeding arms deliveries to Israel.

Rice also met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who demanded a ceasefire to end Israel's similarly aggressive offensive on the Gaza Strip, where 114 people have been killed in an operation to free a captured soldier and halt rocket attacks.

"Rice, Rice, you are a crow, what misery you bring with you," a crowd of about 2,000 protestors chanted before her arrival in Ramallah.

Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya railed against the US view of a new Middle East, saying it was one that began with "destroying Lebanon" and killing the maximum number of Palestinians.

On a visit to the Gaza Strip's main power plant which was bombed by Israel, leaving many of its 1.4 million residents without power, UN humanitarian coordinator Jan Egeland said it was a "clear" example of excessive force.

Human Rights Watch accused Israel of using cluster bombs in Lebanon and demanded the Jewish state immediately halt the practice.

On her trip to Beirut, Rice reportedly outlined plans for a ceasefire that would involve creating an internationally-patrolled buffer zone in southern Lebanon for 60 to 90 days and a Hezbollah withdrawal from the border area.

Washington is under pressure from European and Arab allies to try to bring an end to the crisis amid charges it was dragging its feet to allow Israel time to attempt to wipe out the Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah, which set off the conflict after seizing two soldiers on July 12.

Amid fears of the conflict could spiral, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned of a "storm" brewing in the Middle East that would "turn against the enemies of humanity and strike violently".

Saudi Arabia also issued an ominous warning of a regional Middle East war, as King Abdullah gave Lebanon's central bank one billion dollars to shore up its currency and 500 million dollars in aid to help rebuild the country, along with 250 million dollars to the Palestinians.

Israel is struggling to knock out Hezbollah despite its vastly superior military might.

A 15-year-old Arab Israeli girl was killed after a rocket hit her house in a village in northern Israel as more than a dozen rockets fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon pummelled the northern port of Haifa, wounding at least five people.

Two soldiers were also killed in fighting Monday, bringing to 42 the the toll of Israelis killed, 24 servicemen and 18 civilians.

Israeli forces claimed they had taken the border town of Bint Jbeil, a Hezbollah stronghold, amid fierce gunbattles as troops in tanks and bulldozers pushed even deeper into Lebanon.

"Beit Jbeil is in our hands," General Alon Friedman, one of Israel's top commanders for its northern region, told army radio. The claim was not independently confirmed.

Eight Shiite militants were killed in clashes with Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah and its ally the Amal movement said, without specifying the date or location of their deaths.

Israel has massed troops on the border and warned residents of southern Lebanon to flee but says it has no plans for an all-out invasion -- for now.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Washington's closest ally, called the conflict a "catastrophe" that was damaging fledgling democracy in Lebanon, a country that had gradually been rebuilding since the 1975-90 civil war and the end of Syria's long military and political dominance last year.

He said he hoped a plan would be announced in the next few days to bring about an end to the worst cross-border conflict since Israel invaded its northern neighbour in 1982.

The offensive has left Lebanon virtually cut off from the world, made hundreds of thousands of people refugees in their own country and destroyed billions of dollars of infrastructure.

Siniora, who has issued several desperate appeals for a ceasefire, accused Israel of trying to set his country back 50 years in his meeting with Rice.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah remained defiant, vowing that deeper incursions would not stop the rocket fire, and ruling out any efforts for a negotiated settlement unless it involved a prisoner swap.

Egeland, issuing an urgent appeal for 150 million dollars for 800,000 people made homeless by Israel's onslaught, criticised both Israel and Hezbollah for attacking civilians.

He branded the Shiite militants "cowards" for boasting that Lebanese civilians rather than their fighters were bearing the brunt of the Israeli bombardments.

Israel said it will allow aid shipments to land in at Beirut airport, which has been repeatedly pounded by Israeli air strikes since the offensive began.

As the bombardments continued, foreign governments have laid on flotillas of ships to evacuate stranded nationals, mainly to the nearby resort island of Cyprus which has been battling to find temporary accommodation and flights for the estimated 70,000 evacuees at peak summer holiday season.

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