Washington - US President Bush is pressing for a United Nations resolution linking a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon with a broader plan for peace in the Middle East, despite rising international pressure for a simple no-strings-attached halt to the fighting.

US President George W. Bush pauses as he remarks on the Israel-Lebanon conflict dockside in Miami, Florida. Bush said in an interview that the United States would "probably not" contribute troops to a multinational force for Lebanon.[AFP]

Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the president's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, discussed the next steps over dinner at the White House on Monday.

Bush "reviewed the diplomatic efforts that the United States is pursuing in our effort to end the current conflict in Lebanon," National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones said afterward. "The next step is to pursue a United Nations Security Council resolution that will establish a sustainable cease-fire on an urgent basis. This process began in New York today."

Israel's attack that killed 65 civilians in Qana on Sunday, the deadliest single incident in the Israeli onslaught against Hezbollah militants, prompted Rice to cut short her trip to the region.

Earlier, Bush stood fast by his insistence that any cease-fire be accompanied by the disarming of Hezbollah militia, a return of two kidnapped Israel soldiers and a cessation of support for Hezbollah by the governments of Iran and Syria.

"We want there to be a long-lasting peace, one that is sustainable," Bush said in a speech in Miami.

And, in an interview with Fox News Channel, Bush acknowledged that the Qana deaths had added pressure on Israel to stop bombing. But, he said, "Stopping for the sake of stopping can be OK, except it won't address the root cause of the problem."

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the "center of gravity in terms of diplomatic activity is, I think, shifting to New York now."

He said he hoped for a resolution later in the week.

"As for any more durable action, I think that is something that, again, we're trying to negotiate with our international partners, with the Israeli government, with the Lebanese government and others, so that you have a durable cease-fire that takes place within a political context that a cease-fire supports," McCormack said.

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