July 21 (Bloomberg) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she wants a ``robust'' international military force to try to oust Hezbollah forces from southern Lebanon, as she prepares to leave on a diplomatic mission to the region next week.

Rice said she will leave July 23 for meetings with Palestinian and Israeli officials, and then will meet with other nations in Rome to discuss the fighting in Lebanon.

``We do seek an end to the current violence and we seek it urgently,'' Rice told reporters at the State Department. Still, ``a cease fire would be a false promise if it just returns us to the status quo.''

The conflict in the Middle East is now in its 10th day and Israel and the Hezbollah militia have vowed to continue the fighting that has left more than 300 Lebanese and 34 Israelis dead since it began July 12 when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers.

Any military force must be ``robust enough'' to supplant Hezbollah in southern Lebanon where it can launch attacks on Israel, she said. If not ``we're going to be back here in the next few months,'' Rice said.

Rome Meeting

Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema today told state television Rai that Italy and the U.S. State Department jointly agreed to hold the meeting in Rome on July 26 in order to ``work together to find ways to arrive at a cease-fire, to launch humanitarian aid for the Lebanese population and discuss the stabilization of the region'' including the possibility of ``sending multinational forces.''

The participants in the Rome meeting will be the U.S., Italy, France, the UK, Russia, the EU, the United Nations, the World Bank, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, according to a spokeswoman at the Italian foreign ministry who asked not to be named. Rice said she expects Lebanon to have a delegation at the meeting.

As many as 1 million people in Lebanon may be affected and much of the infrastructure in Beirut and surrounding areas has been destroyed, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in an appeal for an end to the violence. The U.S. hasn't endorsed calls for an immediate cease-fire, and instead put the onus on Hezbollah to end the violence.

Hezbollah

``Hezbollah is the source of the problem,'' Rice said. No diplomatic solution can allow Hezbollah to stay in place, she said. The U.S. is working to put pressure on Iran and Syria, which sponsor Hezbollah, to ease the strife diplomatically, White House spokesman Tony Snow said in an interview today.

Syria must decide whether it will help defuse the crisis, Rice said. Rice put the blame for the violence on extremists in Lebanon, who she said are trying to strangle democracy there.

Annan told the UN Security Council yesterday that Israel must immediately cease hostilities in Lebanon. He condemned both Hezbollah's ``reckless disregard'' for the Lebanese people and Israel's ``excessive use of force.''

The call for an immediate truce put Annan at odds with the U.S., which has said the Security Council should focus on disarming Hezbollah and the return of the Israeli soldiers.

Evacuations

The U.S. and other countries continued to evacuate their citizens from Lebanon. U.S. Lieutenant Commander Charlie Brown said in a telephone interview that a total of 3,700 U.S. nationals have been taken to Cyprus, and several thousand more are expected to leave Beirut today.

Beirut, with a population of 1.2 million, has three days of fuel supplies remaining, as bombardments damaged gasoline stations and fuel storage tanks, a UN report said. The 3.8- strong nation has wheat stocks to cover one to three months of consumption, according to the report.

Israel will allow humanitarian aid into Lebanon, according to Dan Gillerman, Israel's ambassador to the UN. The UN is in talks with Hezbollah on guaranteeing the safe delivery of the supplies, according to Kristen Knutson, a spokeswoman for UN emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland, said.

To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Janine Zacharia in Jerusalem at jzacharia@bloomberg.net Mark Drajem in Washington at mdrajem@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 21, 2006 15:19 EDT