Britain hopes a peace plan for Lebanon can emerge within days that could lead to a cease-fire, but only after details are worked out for an international force, Prime Ministerr Tony Blair said on Monday. His spokesman suggested progress could be made at a conference in Rome on Wednesday.
Blair has been under political pressure at home for joining US President George W. Bush as the only top Western leaders not to publicly call for an immediate cease-fire.
Blair said that did not mean he was indifferent to the deaths of civilians, but that a cease-fire would only work if conditions were first put in place to ensure both sides respected it.
"I don't want the killing to go on. I want the killing to stop. Now. It's got to stop on both sides. And it's not going to stop on both sides without a plan to make it stop," he told a London news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
"What is occurring in Lebanon at the present time is a catastrophe," Blair said. "Anybody with any sense of humanity wants what is happening to stop and stop now. But if it is to stop it must stop on both sides."
"There have been as you might expect over the past few days enormous diplomatic efforts to get us to the point where I hope at some point within the next few days we can say very clearly what our plan is to bring about an immediate cessation of hostilities ..." Blair said.
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett will be among Western and Arab officials convening in Rome on Wednesday to discuss the crisis. Blair's office says she has been working the phones to help promote setting up an international force.
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