A DAY after the G8 summit united to blame extremists for the violence and to urge restraint on Israel, Tony Blair and Kofi Annan went beyond the group’s agreed statement to declare that an international stabilisation force in southern Lebanon was essential.

Speaking at the summit in St Petersburg, Mr Blair and the UN Secretary-General led demands for such a force in an effort to stop Hezbollah attacks on Israel, and Israeli retaliation. “The only way we are going to have a cessation of violence is if we have an international force deployed into that area,” Mr Blair said.

They appeared to have gone farther than either Israel or Washington wanted. Israel said that it was premature to talk of such a force and the US asked whether it could work. Mr Blair admitted that it was an “open question” as to whether it would be agreed when the UN Security Council considers the idea on Thursday.

Amir Peretz, the Israeli Defence Minister, said that his country was determined to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon. “We intend to complete this operation. We have no intention of allowing anyone to stop us,” he said.

John Bolton, Washington’s UN Ambassador, asked what would make a new force more effective than the UN “interim” force that has been in southern Lebanon for 28 years. He said: “Would such a force be empowered to deal with the real problem? The real problem is Hezbollah. Would it be empowered to deal with the countries like Syria and Iran that support Hezbollah?” There are already 2,000 UN troops in southern Lebanon, but Mr Blair said that the new force would have to be “a significantly larger contingent with a far more specific mission”.

The Israeli Government is unlikely to find the idea acceptable unless the new force had a very different mandate to that of Unifil, the UN force already in the area.

Mr Blair played down the possibility of British troops being involved, saying that the British military was already stretched.

Dominique de Villepin, the French Prime Minister, visited Beirut to show solidarity with the Lebanese Government yesterday. He demanded an “immediate humanitarian truce”, and insisted: “Only a political settlement will help to find a way out of this situation.”

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