Israel has said that it is willing to consider the Lebanese proposal to send 15,000 troops to southern Lebanon to police a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah as America expressed "interest" in the suggestion.

Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, also said any such move would probably need to be in conjunction with the deployment of an international force that the United States hopes will be created through a United Nations Security Council resolution to follow one being debated this week.

Diplomats at the UN in New York said a vote on a resolution to end the war might not take place before Thursday as fighting in south Lebanon continued.

Israeli air raids killed 14 people and wounded 23 today in the southern Lebanon village of Ghaziyeh, rescue workers and hospital officials told the Reuters news agency.

Roads in south Lebanon were virtually empty after the Israeli army told residents south of the Litani river, about 20 km (13 miles) from the border, not to drive after 10 p.m. (1900 GMT) on Monday. The open-ended ban exempts only aid convoys agreed in advance with Israel, the army said.

"We are working to have a quick ceasefire or at the very minimum an end to acts of aggression," said Fouad Siniora, the Lebanese Prime Minister. "Then displaced people can return to their homes."

In a press conference today, Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, did not reject out of hand the proposal made by his Lebanese counterpart.

Mr Olmert said: "It looks interesting and we will examine it closely. We said from the outset, naturally we would like to see Lebanese army ... combined with strong military support that will come from other countries."

He said that Israel has no intention of reoccupying southern Lebanon, which it left in 2000. "The faster we leave south Lebanon, the happier we will be, once we have achieved our goals," he said.

Agreement on a UN resolution to halt the fighting in Lebanon, which has claimed some 100 Israeli and 1,000 Lebanese lives, has been delayed by objections from the Lebanese Government and other Arab states to the text drafted by France and the United States.

The draft does not set a timetable for Israel’s withdrawal, provoking criticism from Islamic nations that it is one-sided in favour of Israel. In an emotional speech yesterday, Mr Siniora said that the current text of the resolution would do little to quell the violence. "It barely leads to a cease-fire," he said, choking back tears.

Three Arab League leaders - Amr Moussa, the organisation’s Secretary-General, and the foreign ministers of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates - are due to address a meeting at the UN today to ask that the text should be changed in line with several Lebanese amendments.

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