The US is pressing for a cessation of hostilities for at least three months

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The United States has launched its latest plan to bring peace to the Middle East.

US Secretary of State William Rogers announced his initiative to encourage the Arabs and Israelis to stop shooting and start talking at a news conference in Washington.

Mr Rogers said he hoped the plan would be carried out under the guidance of United Nations mediator Dr Gunnar Jarring and in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions.

The peace effort will attempt to resolve the so-called "war of attrition" which has been raging between Israel and Egypt along the Suez Canal since the Six Day War in 1967.

'Lasting peace'

Recent strategies by the US Secretary of State to end conflict in the region have been rejected by all sides.

Mr Rogers said the objective of the initiative was "to encourage the parties to move to a just and lasting peace".

He refused to give details of any military assistance which might be offered to Israel or to divulge any further details of the plan.

But the US later confirmed it was pressing for acessationof hostilities for at least three months and wished negotiations to be based on the UN resolution 242 - passed at the end of the Six Day War.

Under this declaration, Egypt and Jordan should acknowledge Israel's right to a secure existence behind recognised borders.

In return, Israel should accept the principle of withdrawing from occupied territory.

The Israeli authorities have not commented on the proposals, but Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser is reported to have been scathing of the plans.

King Hussein inspects the Jordanian frontline with Israel in the 1967 war

The United States President Harry S Truman has gone a step further and urged western nations to go out to Korea and help repel the communist invasion.

"By their actions in Korea, communist leaders have demonstrated their contempt for the basic moral principles on which the United Nations is founded," he said.

Surprise attack

The invasion took the international community by surprise, even though the American Economic Co-operation Administration has its biggest mission - about 2,000 staff - in South Korea.

The seven-power commission of the United Nations in Korea (Uncok) confirmed North Korean troops crossed the border - known as the 38th parallel - in 11 places after artillery bombardments were reported in South Korea at 0400 local time.

Uncok has identified northern forces in the Ongjin peninsula and the western towns of Kaesong and Chunchon and landings on the east coast around Skagnung, almost 40 miles from the border.

Their statement also contained details of machine-gun attacks by four 'Yak' aircraft on military and civilian airfields outside the South Korean capital Seoul, destroying aircraft and jeeps and setting fire to petrol tanks.

President Syngman Rhee of South Korea - who denied early rumours of war - told Uncok at least 36 North Korean tanks and armoured cars had been counted on their way to Seoul by the shortest routes.

The North Korean wireless station, in the capital Pyongyang, justified the invasion saying communist forces were counter-attacking against border incursions by the South Koreans in the early hours of the morning and reported a state of war shortly after noon local time.

After an emergency meeting with his cabinet South Korea's foreign minister Ben Limb urged the people of the republic to resist the "dastardlyattack".

The UN Security Council met at Lake Success, Detroit after the Korean Ambassador John Myung Changan sent an urgent petition to the State Department in Washington.

Korea has been divided since the Japanese withdrawal at the end of World War II left the USSR occupying the area north of the 38th parallel and the US to the south.

cessation: a bringing or coming to an end; a ceasing（停止）

dastardly:meanly timid; cowardly; base（卑怯的；卑鄙的）