Blair hit by cabinet backlash over Lebanon crisis

Blair, on a tour of the United States, defended his support of US President George W Bush's refusal to call for an immediate ceasefire or condemn Israel's response, which has led to criticism abroad and in Britain.

It comes as at least 51 people were killed, many of them children, when Israeli war planes Sunday blitzed a village in Lebanon, in the deadliest single strike since the Jewish state unleashed its war on Hezbollah 19 days ago.

Straw, who was replaced by Margaret Beckett in a May cabinet reshuffle, warned that Israel's retaliatory attack on the Shiite militia group in Lebanon risked fuelling further violence in the Middle East.

He is the first ranking Labour Party member to criticise Israel in such a public way, though newspapers reported that other Blair allies were privately voicing their disquiet about his refusal to censure the scale of Israel's assault.