UN keeps eyes closed on raging ME conflict

Washington argued in closed-door talks that the focus for Middle East diplomacy for now should be on the weekend summit in St Petersburg of the Group of Eight industrialised nations, council diplomats said.

It was the sole member of the 15-nation UN body to oppose any council action at all at this time, they said.

"We would expect much more from the Security Council," Lebanese Foreign Ministry official Nouhad Mahmoud told reporters after the council meeting, singling out the United States for blame.

While Washington has been very supportive of the Lebanese government in the past, "when it comes to Israel, it seems things changed," Mahmoud said. "Destruction is still going on, people are still dying ... and here we are impotent."

The council planned another discussion of the conflict on Monday, and hoped to soon begin work on a "substantive" response to the conflict, said French UN Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, the council president for July.

The Monday meeting would be the council's third since Hezbollah guerrillas crossed over into Israel last week and captured two Israeli soldiers, triggering an intensifying military response by Israeli forces that has been met with a steady rain of Hezbollah missiles into northern Israel.