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KUALA LUMPUR : Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to resume her Middle East crisis mission, as the United States warned against a "fake peace" to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
Rice returned to her Kuala Lumpur hotel after giving a piano recital at the normally riotous annual gala of East Asian ministers and dialogue partners to discuss her travel plans with aides working on the Middle East, sources said.
She will leave Malaysia, a day earlier than first thought, on Friday, after a string of one-on-one talks with ministers at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum.
Her staff declined to say where she was going, though it was understood she would turn her focus back to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
A possible stop was the Middle East, after her earlier trip to Beirut, Jerusalem and the West Bank earlier this week.
Rice, is simultaneously targeting humanitarian aid for Lebanon and hoping to boost efforts to put together a multi-national force for the country, so it was possible she could chose another destination, in Europe for instance.
On Wednesday, she attended an international conference on the Lebanon crisis in Rome, which on Thursday hosted a visit by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
"I have not yet made a determination about my further travel," Rice said on Thursday, amid signs that her plans were fluid.
"I am willing and ready to go back to the Middle East at any time," she said at talks between ASEAN ministers and dialogue partners including Australia, the United States, the European Union and Canada.
The United States has made clear the ultimate deal to end the crisis will be between Israel and Lebanon, and not the Hezbollah 'state within a state'.
Critics however say the crisis will never be solved without direct US talks with Syria and Iran which Washington accuses of sponsoring Hezbollah.
President George W. Bush meanwhile said on Thursday "there is an "urgent need to end the violence. There is also an urgent need for Israel to defend itself."
"The Middle East is littered with agreements that just didn't work," said Bush, adding that he hoped to "end this as quickly as possible and, at the same time, (make) sure there's a lasting peace, not a fake peace."
Earlier an Israeli minister insisted the Rome conference -- at which the United States stood firm against demands for an "immediate" ceasefire -- had endorsed its offensive against Hezbollah.
"Yesterday in Rome we in effect obtained the authorization to continue our operations until Hezbollah is no longer present in southern Lebanon," Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon told army radio.
Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz vowed meanwhile that the Hezbollah militia "will not return to what it was before."
Though Israel Thursday decided to step up its air campaign and call up more reservists, in a conflict that has so far taken over 400 lives, it said it would not expand its ground offensive.
In the Gaza conflict meanwhile, Abbas said in Rome that he believed the Israeli soldier, whose kidnap by militants sparked a dramatic surge in violence in the territory, could soon be released.
The United States maintains there is no chance of an immediate ceasefire, so the world should target a lasting deal which addresses what it sees as the root causes of the fighting -- Hezbollah's arsenal support from Tehran and Damascus.
Critics of the US approach however argue Washington wants to delay a ceasefire to allow its ally Israel to neutralise Hezbollah by military means.
As Rice resumes her mission, she will do so with the emotional appeal of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora in Rome fresh in her mind.
"Are we children of a lesser God? Is an Israeli teardrop worth more than a drop of Lebanese blood?" Siniora asked at the Rome talks.
- AFP /ct
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