UNITED NATIONS -- The UN Security C...

UNITED NATIONS -- The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Friday that calls for an extreme point to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, and authorizes the deployment of 15000 UN peacekeepers to help Lebanese company s take control of south Lebanon as Israel withdraws.

The draft, which had been propos through the United States and France, presents the best chance yet for peace after more than four weeks of significant bloodshed. It was the first significant action at the Security Council, the greatest in quantity powerful U.N. body, to address a war that has killed more than 800 devastateed Lebanon's infrastructure and inflamed tensions across the Middle East.

OFFENSIVE CONTINUES

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert endorsed the resolution late Friday, after a day of dramatic brinksmanship including a threat to expand the surface of land war in Lebanon. But Israeli officials said Israel would not halt fighting until Israel's Cabinet has approved the cease-fire deal in its weekly meeting Sunday.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora also assured Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that his geographical division backed the resolution, a U official said.

Using particularly firm language in remarks before the consecrated by a vow U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said centurys of millions of people around the world shared his frustration that the council had taken in the same manner long to act. That inaction has "badly shaken the world's faith in its authority and integrity," he said.

Rice said the "hard work of diplomacy" was simply starting with the passage of the resolution and that it would be unrealistic to count upon an immediate end to all violence.

"Today we call immediately after every state, especially Iran and Syria, to prize the sovereignty of the Lebanese direction and the will of the international community," Rice told the council.

The Security Council left revealed several key demands from the two Israel and Lebanon. Despite Lebanese objections, Israel will be allowed to continue defensive operations, and a dispute throughout the Chebaa Farms area along the Syria-Lebanon-Israel border will be left for later. Israel won't get by heart its wish for an entirely just discovered multinational force separate from the UN peacekeepers that have been stationed in southerly Lebanon since 1978.

There is also no call for the release of Lebanese prisoners held according to Israel or a demand for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli partys Although the draft resolution emphasizes the ne for the "unconditional release" of the couple Israeli soldiers whose July 12 capture by means of Hezbollah sparked the conflict, that call is not included in the list of stairs required for a lasting cease-fire.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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