U.S. rejects Syrian call for ceasefire

Syria says it isprepared to enter talkswith the United States to try to resolve the crisis between Hezbollah the Lebanon-based militant group thatreceives heavy backing from Damascus and Israel.

Faisal al-Meqdad, Syria's deputy foreign minister, made the comment on Sunday amid a12th day of violence, as Israel continued air strikes in Lebanon and Hezbollah militants kept on firing missiles into northern Israel.

John Bolton,the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, scorned Syria's proposal.

"Syria doesn't need dialogue to know what it needs to do. They need to lean on Hezbollah to get them to release the two captured Israeli soldiers and stop the launch of rockets against innocent Israeli civilians," he said.

Al-Meqdadcalled for international powers to broker a ceasefire in the context of a broader Middle East peace initiative. He also said they should address the demands that Hezbollah made after it triggered the conflict by crossing into Israel toraid an army outpost on July 12, killing eight Israeli soldiers and capturing two others.

Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal echoed the sentiments, saying Syria would only support a peace package that included the return of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in 1967.

"Syria is working on achieving real, comprehensive, fair peace based on the withdrawal from all the occupied territories, including Golan," Bilal told the Spanish newspaper ABC in an interview.

The militants have said they would release the soldiers if Israel released Hezbollah militants being held in its jails.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to embark on Sunday on a diplomatic mission in a bid to end fighting in the Middle East. She was also expected at an emergency meeting in Rome on Wednesday that will bring together Israel, Lebanon, the European Union, the United Nations and others interested in Middle East peace.

Syria which has been one of Hezbollah's key backers, along with Iran was not invited to the Rome meeting.

Isolate Israel, Iranian president urges

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmandinejad said Sunday thatIsrael had "pushed the button of its own destruction" by attacking Hezbollah guerillas in Lebanon.

"Arrogant powers have set up a base for themselves to threaten and plunder nations in the region," Ahmadinejad told a gathering of education officials in Tehran.

"But today, the occupier regime [Israel] whose philosophy is based on threats, massacre and invasion has reached its finishing line."

Ahmadinejad said Islamic nations and others should isolate Israel and its backers. He called on Israel and its allies to apologize.

Iran won't join battle: top Iranian general

A day earlier, the chairman of the joint chiefs of Iran's armed forces, Maj.-Gen. Sayyed Hassan Firuzabadi, said Iran would not join the fighting in the Middle East.

After Hezbollah's initial cross-border raid, Israel began pounding Lebanon with air strikes, including attacks Sunday on Beirut, Sidon and Tyre.

The conflict escalated on Saturdaywhen Israel sent troops, tanks and bulldozers into southern Lebanon, but Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz has insisted that his country has no intention of re-occupying the territory that it left in 2000.

Hezbollahmilitants continued to launch volleys of rockets into northern Israel on Sunday, killing at least two people in one of theattacks on the city of Haifa.