The draft called for a “full cessation of hostilities” between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas, but fell short of French demands that there be an immediate unconditional halt to the military action that has plagued the region for four weeks. The resolution will allow Israel to retaliate if Hezbollah launches attacks against it.

However, in a concession to the French, there will be a second UN resolution, yet to be negotiated but possibly within the next two weeks, that will deal with the longer-term issue of peace between Israel and Hezbollah and the creation of an international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.

Israel and America had earlier insisted there would be no deal without the immediate deployment of a new force — separate from Unifil, the current UN monitoring force — which will oversee the truce.

Tony Blair, who delayed his Caribbean holiday to work on the deal, hailed the move as “an absolutely vital first step in bringing this tragic crisis to an end”. “The priority now is to get the resolution adopted as soon as possible and then to work for a permanent ceasefire and achieve the conditions in Lebanon and Israel which will prevent a recurrence,” he said.

The prime minister had earlier spoken by telephone to Fouad Siniora, the Lebanese prime minister. Downing Street said last night that Blair still had no plans to leave London.

It emerged that Margaret Beckett, the foreign secretary, who was reportedly at odds with Blair over the Middle East last week, was in France on a caravan holiday. She may now have to travel to New York this week to vote on the UN resolution.

The breakthrough was announced by John Bolton, the US ambassador to the UN. Last night the 15-member security council met to review the text and the fine tuning work was expected to continue today, with a view to the resolution being adopted within the next couple of days.

The White House said President George Bush was “happy” with the draft. The office of Jacques Chirac, the French president, who had already left for his holiday while continuing talks, seemed equally satisfied.

America could draw comfort from the fact that the draft does not call for an Israeli withdrawal from the southern Lebanon. On the plus side for the French, the agreement is for an immediate “cessation of hostilities”, something America had been resisting for the past three weeks.

The French believe they have also got their way on the sequence of the two resolutions. The first will be voted on early this week, but the second resolution, which will determine the nature of the proposed international peacekeeping force, has yet to be discussed.

“It is out of the question that the Lebanese armed forces and to help to implement of the ceasefire.”

Any deal will have to be accepted by both Israel and Hezbollah. Israel has said it will not halt its campaign against Hezbollah unless an international stabilisation force is in place. It also wants to crush Hezbollah’s military capability.

“We have the coming days for lots of military moves,” Isaac Herzog, the Israeli tourism minister, said shortly after the diplomatic breakthrough was announced. “But we have to realise the timetable is getting shorter.”

Responding to the draft UN deal, Mohammed Fneish, a Hezbollah cabinet minister in Lebanon’s government, said the Shi’ite militia would continue to fight as long there were Israeli troops inside the country. “We abide by it on condition that no Israeli soldier remains inside Lebanese land. If they stay, we will not abide by it,” said Fneish.

Earlier, Israeli naval commandos mounted a raid on an apartment building in the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre yesterday, targeting a Hezbollah rocket crew in a daring attempt to stop barrages. At least 170 rockets were fired into Israel yesterday, killing three people.

Frogmen of Israel’s elite Flotilla 13 commando unit landed before dawn and advanced on the building identified as sheltering Hezbollah’s Iran-trained guerrillas. Israel said the troops killed at least seven Hezbollah fighters. Eight commandos were injured.

The corner apartment of the rocket crew was gutted, with furniture melted from the heat of a rocket that slammed into it.

There are growing concerns in Israel that Hezbollah is about to deploy its top-of-the range weapons, including Iranian-made Zelzal-2 missiles that potentially can be fitted with a chemical warhead.

With a range of more than 124 miles and a 1300lb high explosive warhead, the Zelzal-2 could wreak havoc in Tel Aviv. There was a rush to build shelters in central Israel this weekend.

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