ISRAEL backed down for the first time last night in the face of overwhelming diplomatic pressure and agreed to an immediate 48-hour suspension of aerial bombing over southern Lebanon.

The move was announced in Jerusalem by Adam Ereli, US State Department spokesman, to reporters travelling with Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State. He said that Israel had reserved the right to hit targets if it learnt that attacks were being prepared against them.

“The United States welcomes this decision and hopes that it will help to relieve the suffering of the children and families of southern Lebanon,” Mr Ereli said.

Israel will co-ordinate with the United Nations to allow a 24-hour period of safe passage for all residents of southern Lebanon who wanted to leave the region, he added.

An Israeli government official confirmed that Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister, had agreed to the 48-hour suspension of airstrikes on Lebanon.

Only hours earlier, Israel had defiantly insisted that it would continue its military campaign in Lebanon, blaming Hezbollah for the Qana tragedy.

Mr Olmert’s Government had accused Shia guerrillas of firing Katyusha rockets from near the building levelled by its aircraft and said that it had warned civilians to leave the area several days earlier.

The diplomatic fallout from Qana was immediate. Dr Rice was forced to cancel a planned trip to Beirut. She is due to return to Washington today to push efforts to secure a United Nations Security Council resolution, paving the way for a ceasefire.

Before the Qana attack, Dr Rice was working on a deal that would see an international “stabilisation” force of up to 20,000 troops deployed in a buffer zone alongside the Lebanese Army.

The terms would see Hezbollah leaving the area but it would not be disarmed. In return, Israel’s kidnapped soldiers would be freed for Lebanese prisoners held in Israeli jails.

Mr Olmert was reported to have told Dr Rice that Israel needed another ten to fourteen days to continue its offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Prime Minister’s office said.

Israel and the US have resisted calls for an immediate ceasefire to end the three-week conflict, which has killed at least 550 people in Lebanon and 51 in Israel.

The deaths of scores of Lebanese civilians prompted Hezbollah to mount its heaviest bombardment of Israel, firing more than 140 rockets and raising fears that it will act on Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah’s threats to use longer-range rockets capable of striking even Tel Aviv.

Holding Hezbollah directly responsible for the deaths, Israeli officials accused the group of using civilians as human shields and said that Hezbollah had fired hundreds of Katyusha rockets into western Galilee from Qana.

Mr Olmert expressed “deep sorrow” at the deaths, saying: “There is nothing further away from our thoughts and interests than hurting civiians.”

But he insisted that the Jewish state was “not in a hurry to have a ceasefire” until it had weakened Hezbollah further, and repeated the defiant tone after last week’s attack on a UN observation post that killed four observers.

“We will not stop this battle, despite the difficult incidents this morning,” he told the Israeli Cabinet. We will continue the activity and, if necessary, it will be broadened without hesitation.”

Mitch Pilcer, an Army spokesman, said: “We were aiming at Hezbollah. We were hitting an operational target. We don’t just lob bombs.”

The rebuttals did nothing to satisfy critics of Israel, even drawing condemnation from King Abdullah of Jordan — its closest regional ally — who called the attack an ugly crime.

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