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Clinton pledges US bid to end Lebanon clashes

TOKYO: President Bill Clinton pledged on Wednesday that the United States would make every effort to re-establish a "workable agreement" between Israel and Iranian-backed Moslem guerrillas to restore peace in Lebanon.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher, visiting Japan with Clinton, canvassed Arab foreign ministers in pursuit of a diplomatic initiative to end days of violent clashes between Israeli forces and Hizbollah guerrillas based in Lebanon.

"We will do what we can to bring an end to the violence and try to re-establish a workable agreement, but I have no progress to report on that at this time," Clinton told a news conference in Tokyo.

Earlier, White House press secretary Mike McCurry said Christopher expected to work on the problem for several more days, and that an Arab league meeting in Cairo on Thursday "has to play out before there can be much more (progress)".

Clinton joined other U.S. officials in blaming the upsurge of fighting on Hizbollah, contrary to the U.S. line on previous occasions of urging restraint on all parties.

"I think that clearly the truce was violated by Hizbollah violating the agreement that had previously been brokered, and raining the Katyusha rockets into northern Israel. That was obviously what provoked this," Clinton said.

He was referring to a U.S.-negotiated accord of 1993, whereby Israel and Hizbollah agreed to avoid civilian casualties. Each side has accused the other of breaking that agreement this time.

State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said Christopher telephoned foreign ministers Amr Moussa of Egypt, Prince Saud al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia and Farouq al-Shara of Syria on Wednesday in a bid to end the fighting.

"We are very concerned about casualties on both sides of the border," Burns told reporters.

Israel's bombardment of Hizbollah positions in Lebanon has cleared hundreds of thousands of residents from an area that stretches some 30 km (20 miles) north of the Israeli border and includes more than 100 towns and villages and the city of Tyre.

At least 31 people have been killed and 143 wounded in the Israeli blitz. Guerrilla rockets have wounded more than 45 people in Israel.

"We would like to see agreement by Hizbollah to stop the rocket attacks," Burns told reporters. "If Hizbollah will do that in good faith, there is reason to believe that Israel will also comply."

The spokesman said the United States was putting forward a "comprehensive set of ideas" but refused to give further details of the initiative, saying to do so would compromise its chances of success.

Reports from Lebanon say Washington is proposing to extend the 1993 understanding by having Hizbollah agree to stop attacking not only Israel but the Israeli "security zone" in southern Lebanon, in return for an eventual Israeli pull-back.

The United States has been discussing its plan with Lebanon, Israel and Syria and has appealed publicly to Iran to use its influence.-Reuter