Compensation

During the meeting, the Lebanese prime minister said Israel should be forced to pay compensation for damage caused by military strikes on the country's infrastructure.

Fuad Saniora also called on Wednesday for a prisoner exchange supervised by the Red Cross as part of a plan to resolve the crisis.

"Israel cannot go on indefinitely disregarding international law. It must be made to pay and we shall commence legal proceedings and spare no avenue to make Israel compensate the Lebanese people," he said.

The Lebanese government said that 2.07 billion dollars worth of damage had been caused by Israeli attacks during the crisis.

Deliberate attack

Earlier, Kofi Annan had criticised Israel over what he said was a deliberate attack that killed four UN observers in southern Lebanon.

"The death and destruction we have witnessed in the past two weeks...compels this conference to send a strong message and to speak with one voice," he said.

The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, told a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that he wanted to establish a security zone between one and two kilometres wide on the Lebanese side of the border to stop Hezbollah fighters firing rockets at Israel, the Israeli media reported.

Thirteen Israeli soldiers were killed in clashes in a southern Lebanese town, Aljazeera said.

Israel's war against Hezbollah has killed at least 418 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians. At least 42 Israelis have also died.