EHUD OLMERT set out his conditions to bring an end to more than three weeks of fighting in Lebanon yesterday when he called for a robust force of 15,000 foreign combat troops, including British soldiers, to be deployed in the south of the country.

In an interview with The Times in Jerusalem, the Israeli Prime Minister, said that the conflict could be over as soon as the United Nations Security Council authorised an international force and the troops were in place.

As he set out his vision for peace, the fighting intensified with 10,000 Israeli soldiers battling against Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon. The Shia Muslim militant group fired a record number of 213 rockets into Israel, with some penetrating the West Bank, the farthest that they have reached.

Nevertheless, Mr Olmert seemed confident that the fighting could be stopped within days. “I do not think that it will take weeks,” he said. “I think that a resolution will be made some time next week by the UN Security Council and then it depends on the rapidity of deployment of the international forces into the south of Lebanon.”

As he spoke, American, British and French diplomats said that they were close to agreement on the wording of a UN resolution that would call for an immediate halt to fighting and open the way for a second resolution authorising multinational force.

Mr Olmert insisted that the Jewish state would not stop fighting until a force arrived equipped and mandated to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1559 — code for disarming Hezbollah — and he made clear that there would be an “overlap period” between Israeli pullout and multinational arrival.

“I think it has to have about 15,000 soldiers. I think that’s more or less what the international community understands,” he said.

He also said that Israel would not welcome a unit similar to the existing UN Interim Force In Lebanon (Unifil), which he said had proved ineffective in halting Hezbollah’s seizure of southern Lebanon.

“It has to be made up of armies, not of retirees, of real soldiers, not of pensioners who have come to spend leisurely months in south Lebanon but, rather, an army with combat units that is prepared to implement the UN resolution.”

He added: “We will not pull out and we will not stop shooting until there is an international force that will effectively control the area.”

Mr Olmert said that he discussed the deployment of British troops with the Prime Minister. He envisaged French, German, Italian and Turkish troops, alongside those from Arab nations.

“I told Tony Blair yesterday, I don’t mind having British soldiers as part of an international force because I trust the integrity of the British Government and the British soldiers.” He insisted that Israel would co-operate with “any reasonable resolution that will consider the interests of the people of Israel and the rights of self-defence”.

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