An emergency summit held in Rome on the escalating Israel-Hezbollah conflict failed to come up with a plan to immediately end the fighting.

Officials would only say after the Wednesday meeting that they would continue to work toward a plan for a ceasefire.

A follow-up meeting has been scheduled for Aug. 1.

Although officials called for an immediate end to the violence, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said any ceasefire must be "sustainable" and that there could be "no return to the status quo ante."

"The ceasefire must be lasting, permanent and sustainable," said a statement read by Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema.

Britain strongly supported that view, and Peter MacKay, Canada's foreign minister, said: "That was one of the topical issues: How do we ensure that this will not just be a ceasefire that will erupt in violence again, but a lasting peace?"

That happened despite the pleas of Lebanon's Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, who said: "Our country has been pounded for 15 days. People are dying every day."

Watching TV in Beirut, one man said: "We hoped they'd look at the Lebanese children who are dying. Hoped they wouldn't conspire against us."

Annan's proposal

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan called for the formation of a multinational peacekeeping force to help Lebanon extend its control over its territory and implement UN resolutions that would leave Hezbollah disarmed.

Annan also urged Israel -- which didn't send representatives to the meeting -- to stop all bombardments, ground operations and blockades in Lebanon, and for Hezbollah to stop deliberately targeting Israeli population centres.

Calling the situation "horrendous and dangerous", the UN chief said any political framework to end the conflict should address issues including prisoners and the delineation of Lebanon's borders.

Annan has asked the foreign ministers from some 20 countries, including Canada, gathered at the summit to urge the UN Security Council (UNSC) to call for an immediate ceasefire.

"A cessation of hostilities, a political framework, the deployment of an international force and agreement on a reconstruction programme would give us the beginnings of a way out of this crisis," he said.

The UNSC has greater power than other arms of the UN because it can make decisions that member governments must carry out under the UN Charter.

Annan added that for any solution for a lasting peace to work, there would need to be "constructive engagement" from countries in the region including Syria and Iran, which were not invited to the Rome summit.

Nations at the summit also pressed Rice to demand an immediate end to the fighting on the border between Israel and Lebanon.

But Rice stuck to her position and has repeatedly said the region needs an "enduring" solution -- one "that can deal with the causes of extremism that began this crisis and that can also lead to the establishment of the sovereignty of the Lebanese government throughout its territory."

Other U.S. officials, including Secretary of State David Welch, have also raised doubts about an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah fighters in the southern part of Lebanon.

Travelling with Rice, Welch told reporters a ceasefire cannot be reached overnight.

The U.S. is proposing that Hezbollah weapons be removed from a buffer zone extending about 29 kilometres from the Israeli border, according to an official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Saniora warned there would be grave repercussions in delaying a ceasefire.

"The more we delay a ceasefire, the more we are going to witness more ... of the destruction and more of the aggression against civilians in Lebanon," he told the news conference.

In an impassioned speech during the meeting, Saniora asked: "Is the value of human rights in Lebanon less than that of citizens elsewhere? Are we children of a lesser God?"

Soon after Rice arrived in Rome late Tuesday, there was word of fresh rocket attacks on a UN observation post in south Lebanon, killing at least four United Nations observers, including one Canadian.

The attack prompted Annan to demand an Israeli investigation into the incident, which he called "apparently deliberate."

An official close to the speaker of Lebanon's Parliament has said Rice proposed that the fighting stop at the same time that an international force deploys in southern Lebanon.

But questions remain about what an international peacekeeping force would look like -- including whether the troops would be stationed around the Lebanon or just in the country's dangerous southern region.

Also to be negotiated is the role of Lebanese forces and whether international troops would secure Lebanon's ports and airports.

With a report from CTV's Tom Kennedy and files from The Associated Press