Rice returns to thrash out ceasefire deal

“I do think it is important that groundwork be laid so I can make the most of whatever time I can spend there,” Rice said in Malaysia at a meeting on Asian issues.

US president George Bush, holding a news conference in Washington yesterday with Tony Blair, announced Rice’s return to the region she visited earlier in the week amid escalating violence.

“She will work with the leaders of Israel and Lebanon to seize this opportunity to achieve lasting peace and stability for both of their countries,” Bush said.

Among the items Rice is seeking is an international agreement on a United Nations-mandated multinational force that can provide stability in Lebanon.

Details to be worked out include what the international force would look like and whether the troops would be stationed around Lebanon or just in the tense, Shiite-dominated south. Also under consideration is the role of Lebanese forces and whether international troops would secure Lebanon’s ports and airports.

A US official, speaking anonymously because of the sensitive nature of the discussions, said other possible elements of a proposal for the ending the conflict include:

:: Disarming Hezbollah and integrating the guerilla force into the Lebanese army;

:: Urging Hezbollah to return Israeli prisoners;

:: A commitment to resolve the status of Chebaa Farms, a small piece of land held by Israel and claimed by Lebanon;

:: Setting up a “no-go” buffer zone in southern Lebanon;

:: An international reconstruction plan for Lebanon.

Rice’s spokesman, Adam Ereli, took strong issue with an assertion by Israel’s justice minister Haim Ramon that the failure of world leaders to call for an immediate ceasefire at a summit in Rome gave Israel the green light to carry on its campaign to crush Hezbollah.

“Any such statement is outrageous,” Ereli said. “The US is sparing no effort to bring a durable and lasting end to this conflict.”

Rice added, “I think everybody in Rome agreed that we can’t return to the circumstances that led us to this in the first place.”

The US, adopting a diplomatic stance that has not been embraced by most allies, has been insisting that any ceasefire to the violence must come with conditions to address long-standing regional disputes.

Nearly every US ally, except Britain and Israel, has called for a quick truce to end the bloodshed, along with efforts to smooth needed humanitarian supplies to the Lebanese. They believe the difficult work of solving old grievances between Hezbollah and Israel can come later.

Rice spent three days dashing to high-stakes meetings in Beirut, Jerusalem, the West Bank and Rome, then travelled to Malaysia on Thursday for a long-planned conference of the Association of South-east Asian Nations.

Rice also sent the administration’s two leading Middle East experts, Elliot Abrams and David Welch, to Jerusalem on Thursday to handle detailed negotiations on the contents of a UN Security Council resolution that will be offered next week.

Besides agreement on a multinational force, Rice has said the US is seeking an acknowledgement under standing international agreements that Lebanon has sovereignty throughout its entire territory and an agreement that there be no militias inside the state.

Rice received a warm welcome during her stop in Israel this week, but has faced a series of difficult sessions with world leaders elsewhere who take exception to the course the US is charting in the conflict on the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Asked in Malaysia what she hoped to accomplish when she returned to the region, Rice said: “We hope to achieve an early end to this violence. ... That means that we have to help the parties establish conditions that will make it possible for an early ceasefire that, nonetheless, does not return us to the status quo.”