WASHINGTON, Aug 1: About 500 people, most of them women, circled silently in front of the White House on Monday night to call for an end to war in Lebanon. In the US Senate, Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska broke ranks with President George Bush and demanded an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon.

In the House of Representatives, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat from Ohio, moved a resolution urging the US to pursue an immediate cessation of violence and “multi-party negotiations with no preconditions”.

Vigils against the war were held in New York, Chicago, Detroit and San Francisco.

In his speech in the house, Senator Hagel described the conflict as ‘sickening slaughter’ and said: “This madness must stop.”

He said Mr Bush should be acting for an immediate ceasefire instead of suggesting a complex plan to the UN Security Council. Senator Hagel is the first Republican to challenge the Bush administration’s approach.