Arriving for emergency talks, EU foreign ministers were united in deploring the fighting that has raged since fighters with the Shiite Muslim militia snatched two Israeli soldiers on July 12, and most want an immediate truce.

"We hope this meeting today will bring in an element of calm and restraint. We must stop this killing, and we must get back to the political and diplomatic path," said Swedish Foreign Minister Jan Eliasson.

A draft version of the final declaration to be agreed by ministers also called for "an immediate ceasefire," according to one diplomat.

But heavyweight members Britain and Germany emphasised that a political agreement was needed at the United Nations to ensure that any ceasefire would last.

"What we all hope to achieve today is to get an agreement to call for an end of violence," British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett told reporters as she arrived for the crisis talks, called a week ago.

The talks will also seek "to get the basis for a political agreement and to see whether we can get common ground on what could be the mandate and what could be the approach to deploy an international force," she added.

Israel said that talks between world powers in Rome last week, which broke up without agreement on a ceasefire call, effectively gave it "authorisation" to press on with its offensive in Lebanon.

The EU talks come during a 48-hour Israeli "suspension" of air strikes after its war planes killed 52 civilians, mostly children, in the Lebanese village of Qana, sparking international outrage.

Despite the promised halt in air raids, however, Israeli warplanes staged a series of air strikes Monday and early Tuesday, Lebanese police said.

Moreover, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed Monday there would be no early ceasefire in the offensive.

Meanwhile, the UN powers on Monday stepped up the hunt for a peace plan for the Middle East crisis, as Lebanon made an impassioned plea for an immediate ceasefire, which is still opposed by the United States and Israel.

The five permanent UN Security Council members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- held their first official consultations on preparing a resolution on the war, which their governments want passed this week.

A planned meeting of countries ready to contribute to a future international force in south Lebanon was postponed because there is no agreed plan. The Security Council extended the mandate for the small UN Interim Force (Unifil) in Lebanon for one month while talks go on.

France has already distributed a draft UN resolution, which calls for a ceasefire and political settlement. The United States is working on its own proposal. Diplomats said others are possible.