United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan was at the centre of a diplomatic storm today after accusing Israel of deliberately bombing a UN observer post in southern Lebanon, killing at least two peacekeepers.

France mobilised to send urgent aid to Lebanon, the Red Cross managed to get relief supplies to the south, and Israel agreed to allow a safe corridor for ensuring that food and medicine reaches those in need.

Israeli troops and tanks massed on Lebanon’s border today and officials said the army was preparing for a limited incursion in Lebanon in the near future.

ISRAELI troops met fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas yesterday as they crossed into Lebanon to seek tunnels and weapons after warning residents in a 20-mile swathe of the south along the border to flee.

Israeli troops met fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas today as they crossed into Lebanon to seek tunnels and weapons after warning residents in a nearly 20 mile swath of the south along the border to flee.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called for an immediate halt to the escalating conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia but said “there are serious obstacles to reaching a ceasefire or even to diminishing the violence quickly".

Israeli troops met fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas today as they crossed into Lebanon to seek tunnels and weapons for a second consecutive day as Israel refused to rule out a full-scale invasion.

Israeli warplanes dropped 23 tons of bombs on a bunker in south Beirut where the army believed senior Hezbollah leaders were hiding, a senior army official said today, but the guerrilla group denied the site was a bunker or that its leadership had been hurt.

ISRAELI troops clashed with Hezbollah guerrillas on the Lebanese side of the border yesterday, while warplanes flattened buildings and at least 50 people were killed as fighting entered its second week.

Israeli troops fought Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon today, and there were Israeli casualties, the Israeli military said in Jerusalem.

Diplomatic efforts to stop the week-long conflict between Israel and Lebanon gained momentum, but Israel said it was preparing to fight Hezbollah guerrillas for several more weeks and might send in ground forces.

Lebanon accused Israel today of launching “a widespread barbaric aggression” aimed at bringing the small nation to its knees and urged the international community to end the military offensive.

ISRAEL'S leaders held the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority responsible for the deadliest suicide bombing in 20 months but stopped short of branding it an "enemy entity" or ordering a large-scale military operation.

Israel warned today that a new “axis of terror” – Iran, Syria and the Hamas-run Palestinian government – was sowing the seeds of the first world war of the 21st century.

The UN General Assembly has overwhelmingly adopted a resolution demanding that Israel comply with a world court decision and tear down the barrier it is building to seal off the West Bank.

THE United Nations General Assembly demanded yesterday that Israel halt building work on a barrier jutting deep into the West Bank and pull down the section already built.

Syria demanded that the UN Security Council condemn Israel’s airstrike against an alleged terrorist training camp near Damascus, but the United States said it would not support any resolution that does not also criticise attacks against Israel.

YASSER ARAFAT yesterday dismissed the US veto of a UN resolution against Israel's threats to expel him, saying the step will not "shake us".

The US vetoed a UN resolution that called on Israel to halt threats to expel Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from the West Bank.

Calling Yasser Arafat the man who inspired modern "mega-terrorism", Israel's UN ambassador said his country could have assassinated the Palestinian leader at any time if it wanted to.

ISRAEL has not adopted a formal decision to kill Yasser Arafat, Israel's foreign minister said yesterday in an apparent attempt to soften remarks by the vice premier who said that assassination was an option.

Israel’s ambassador has used a UN Security Council meeting on terrorism to attack Syria as “one of the world’s foremost sponsors of terrorism”.