Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, accused Israel today of ignoring repeated warnings from United Nations staff before the bombing of an observation post in southern Lebanon that killed four international peacekeepers.
The bombing last night overshadowed an emergency meeting of 15 foreign ministers in Rome, where Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, beat off concerted international demands for an immediate ceasefire.
The meeting instead urged Israel to exercise the "utmost restraint" while the conditions for a "sustainable" ceasefire were put in place, and agreed in principle the creation of an international force to police an eventual peace deal.
On the ground, the Israeli military suffered heavy losses, with at least eight of its soldiers killed during an assault on a Hezbollah stronghold in south Lebanon. Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes carried out 15 airstrikes and levelled buildings in the Lebanese city of Tyre.
In a separate diplomatic development, the British Government said that it will make a formal complaint to the United States over its use of a Glasgow airport for transiting bombs to Israel, the Foreign Secretary said today.
Margaret Beckett said that it appeared the United States did not follow correct procedures when transporting arms to Israel via Britain.
In Rome, Mr Annan said that he accepted the expression of deep regret offered to him by Ehud Olmert, the Israel Prime Minister, over the killing of the four UN peacekeepers from China, Finland, Canada and Austria.
But he refused to back down from his own statement, made only an hour after the bombing, that the attack had been "apparently deliberate", saying that the shelling around the UN base at Khiyam began early in the morning and went on until 7pm, when contact with the post was lost.
He said that during that time UN staff were in constant touch with the Israeli army "telling them, 'We have people down there, please do not harm them.'"
The BBC reported the contents of an initial UN report into the deaths, which said that UN staff had telephoned Israeli commanders ten times to warn them that the base was in danger of being hit and were reassured each time that the shelling would stop.
Israel confirmed that its soldiers had been operating yesterday in the Khiyam area, from which, it said, Hezbollah guerrillas had been launching rocket attacks against Israel.
"Following an initial inquiry it appears that during the operation the UN post was unintentionally hit," it said. "The IDF (Israeli Defence Force) expresses deep regret over the incident and stresses that it would never intentionally target any UN facility or personnel. The IDF is launching a full investigation in close co-ordination with the UN."
More than 420 people have been killed in a two-week Israeli offensive on Lebanon, mostly civilians caught up in airstrikes. If today's reports are proved correct, up to 50 Israelis have been killed, including 18 civilians killed in Hezbollah rocket fire on northern Israel.
Those attacks continued today — an Israeli official said that at least 119 rockets were fired over the border — despite fierce fighting around the Hezbollah base of Bint Jbeil, a town 4km (2.5 miles) north of the Israeli-Lebanese border.
A Hezbollah spokesman said that 13 Israelis had "been burnt alive in their tanks on our land" during today's violence. The Israeli army gave lower figures, confirming that eight soldiers were killed and 22 wounded near Bint Jbail.
But some officials and front line soldiers indicated the figure could rise later. Lebanese security sources said Hezbollah ambushed the Israeli force as it was advancing on Bint Jbail, while others were wounded when guerrillas attacked the border village of Maroun al-Ras, supposedly taken by Israel in heavy fighting last week.
Major General Udi Adam, head of Israel’s Northern Command, confirmed that many of his soldiers were wounded in the encounters with dozens of Hezbollah.
"Today we had a tough day, but if we measure the last couple of days, we have had many successes. We killed tens of terrorists, we have destroyed infrastructures, and transmission rooms. We have obtained very good intelligence," he said.
Bint Jbeil, which has enormous symbolic importance for Hezbollah because it was a base of resistance during the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon from 1982-2000, has been the object of the severest fighting of the current crisis.
A senior Hezbollah official, Mahmoud Komati, told the Associated Press today that Israeli forces had managed to capture a few points in the town were yet to enter the centre. He denied Israeli accusations that Hezbollah fighters were sheltering in mosques and civilian buildings.
"Fighters don’t take shelter in mosques. They fight on the battlefield. If they can’t, they retreat but not to mosques," he said.
Elsewhere in Lebanon, Israeli warplanes conducted at least 15 raids, destroying a six-storey building in the city of Tyre. Israeli officials claimed the building was empty but ambulances rushed to the rubble to look for bystanders who might have been injured.
In Rome, the United States succeeded in holding off the growing chorus of demands for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon, allowing Israel to continue its onslaught against Hezbollah militants.
But the demands for both sides to stop the fighting grew stronger after foreign ministers from the US, Middle East and Europe agreed in Rome on the need for an international military force under the UN to be sent to the Middle East to act as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon.
The force is seen as the essential precondition to a stop in the fighting and Britain and other countries tonight expressed a new urgency about the achievement of a ceasefire on both sides.
At the urging of Mrs Beckett, the Rome agreement called on participants to "work immmediately to reach with the utmost urgency a ceasefire which puts an end to the current violence and hostilities." It also called on Israel to exercise "utmost restraint."
The conference featured an impassioned speech from Fouad Siniora, the Lebanese Prime Minister, who asked: "Is the value of human rights in Lebanon less than that of citizens elsewhere? Are we children of a lesser God?"
Mr Siniora said that there were dangers in delaying a ceasefire. "The more we delay a ceasefire, the more we are going to witness more... of the destruction and more of the aggression against civilians in Lebanon."
Amir Peretz, the Israeli Defence Minister, said yesterday that Israel would maintain a security zone in the south until either a multinational force "with enforcement capability" is deployed on the border, or Hezbollah is pushed back in a cease-fire agreement that also cuts off the supply of its weapons.
"We have no other option," he said. "We have to build a new security strip that would be a cover for our forces."
Much of the discussion focused on who would lead the border force and what its mandate would be. Signor D’Alema said that it would need a UN mandate, while Israel favours a Nato-led force — an idea which Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the Nato chief, thought was premature.
President Chirac of France told Le Monde that his country could play a major role in an international force, though disarming Hezbollah should not be part of its mandate. He said that Nato should not be involved in the force because "like it or not, it is perceived in the region as the armed wing of the West".
