WASHINGTON, July 21: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will go to the Middle East on Sunday while resisting international pressure for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

With tensions rising at the Israeli-Lebanese border, Ms Rice told a news conference on Friday she hoped her trip would create conditions for a lasting Middle East peace, but acknowledged her diplomatic work would be difficult.

She said she would visit Israel and the Palestinian territories and join Arab officials, including from Lebanon, at an international conference in Rome on the crisis in Lebanon. An Italian spokesman said it would be held on Wednesday.

Some US analysts doubt Ms Rice’s prospects for stopping 10 days of fighting because of her reluctance to talk to key players — Hezbollah and its backers, Iran and Syria.

Resisting calls from the United Nations, Europe and the Arab world, she said an immediate ceasefire would produce a ‘false promise’ that would allow Hezbollah to re-emerge in the future to attack Israel, the top US ally in the region.

“An immediate cease-fire without political conditions does not make sense,” she said.

“If you simply look for a cease-fire ... we will be back here in six months again,” she added.

“What I won’t do is go to some place and try to get a ceasefire that I know isn’t going to last.”—Reuters