more than 60 Lebanese civilians slain by

QANA, Lebanon - An Israeli airstrike killed at least 60 people � many of them children � in a southern Lebanese village Sunday, the deadliest attack in 19 days of fighting. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice postponed a visit to Lebanon in a setback for diplomatic efforts to end hostilities.

The missiles destroyed several homes in the village of Qana as people were sleeping. Rescue officials said at least 60 people were killed, and the bodies of 27 children were found in the rubble, Reuters reported.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the Security Council on Sunday to condemn a deadly Israeli attack on Qana and to call for an immediate end to the violence.

Infuriated Lebanese officials said they had asked Rice to postpone the visit after Israel�s missile strike. But Rice said she called Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora to say she would postpone the trip, and that she had work to do in Jerusalem to end the fighting.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that the Lebanese army opened fire on Israeli helicopters trying to land near a town in the Bekaa valley, preventing them from setting down, Lebanese security sources and witnesses said.

The four helicopters appeared to be trying to land Israeli soldiers near the town of Yammouni, they said. The helicopters flew away before Israeli warplanes launched air raids on the area, the sources told Reuters.

�Extreme gravity�
�We meet at a moment of extreme gravity first and foremost for the people of the Middle East but also for the authority of this organization and especially this council,� Annan said.

�I am deeply dismayed that my earlier calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities were not heeded,� he said. �I repeat this call once again from this chamber and I appeal to the council to do likewise.�

Annan was speaking at an emergency council meeting he called after the air strike.

The council, after an hour of consultations, adjourned until later Sunday while the 15 members contacted their governments on a possible statement.

In frank terms, Annan said the council risks undermining its own authority if it does not take action. He said that was underscored by attacks on the U.N. headquarters in Beirut and Gaza City on Sunday, when protesters angry about the Qana attack smashed windows and hurled stones.

�People have noticed its failure to act firmly and quickly during this crisis,� Annan said.

�Atrocities against humanity,� Lebanese envoy says
Lebanese special envoy Nouhad Mahoud echoed those complaints at the U.N.. �Israel is committing atrocities against humanity,� Mahoud said. The fact that the council has not taken up a resolution on civilian deaths, he said, �does not mean that the truth is to remain hidden.�

"Rescue workers have now plucked more than 60 corpses from under a residential building. More corpses continue to be plucked from the ruins, mostly women and children," he said.

In San Francisco, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Sunday's deadly attacks were "absolutely tragic" and that the ongoing hostilities "absolutely cannot continue."

Blair, who is in California to meet with government and business leaders, said that a U.N. resolution must be passed now and once passed, the hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah must immediately stop.

"We have to get this now. We have to speed this whole process up," Blair said. "This has got to stop and stop on both sides."

Blair warned that any resolution must lead to a genuine cessation of hostilities, to put an end to the conflict "for good," though he did not call for a cease fire.

Anger from Syria, France
Condemnation was equally swift from the Arab world. In Damascus, Syria, Hamas Leader Khaled Meshaal has called for more resistance against Israel in response to an attack by Israel on a Lebanese village that killed more than 60 civilians on Sunday.

�The only response to this ugly massacre is an acceleration of the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine,� Meshaal told Reuters in an interview.

�Is there any thing left for our peoples except resistance to protect our women, children, land and honour in this Zionist-American age?�

Meshaal said Israel was trying to appease Palestinians holding an Israeli soldier in Gaza by offering them a deal he did not specify so it could focus its efforts on its onslaught on Lebanon.

�We have to be careful of calls to isolate the Palestinian cause from what is going on in Lebanon. This will not protect our people,� said Meshaal, who lives in Syria.

French President Jacques Chirac�s office said �France condemns this unjustifiable action, which shows more than ever the need to move toward an immediate cease-fire, without which other such dramas can only be repeated.�

Jordan, Egypt condemn action
Jordan�s King Abdullah II condemned �the ugly crime perpetrated by Israeli forces in Qana,� calling it �a blatant violation of the law and all international conventions.�

In Cairo, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa joined a chorus of Arab leaders on Sunday in denouncing the air strike, terming it a �massacre� and demanding an international probe.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a U.S. ally, condemned the �irresponsible bombing� and Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit summoned the Israeli ambassador. Egypt is one of two Arab countries, along with Jordan, to have signed peace treaties with Israel.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was quoted as saying by state news agency SANA: �It constitutes state terrorism committed in front of the eyes and ears of the world.�

Israel: Hezbollah used village as base
Israeli said it targeted Qana because it was a base for hundreds of rockets launched at Israeli, including 40 that injured five Israelis on Sunday. Israel said it had warned civilians several days before to leave the village.

�One must understand the Hezbollah is using their own civilian population as human shields,� said Israeli Foreign Ministry official Gideon Meir. �The Israeli defense forces dropped leaflets and warned the civilian population to leave the place because the Hezbollah turned it into a war zone.�

Rescuers aided by villagers dug through the rubble by hand. At least 20 bodies wrapped in white sheets were taken away, including 10 children. A row of houses lay in ruins, and an old woman was carried away on a plastic chair.

Villagers said many of the dead were from four families who had taken refuge in on the ground floor of a three-story building, believing they would be safe from bombings.

�We want this to stop!� shouted Mohammed Ismail, a middle-aged man pulling away at the rubble in search for bodies, his brown pants covered in dust. �May God have mercy on the children. They came here to escape the fighting.�

�They are hitting children to bring the fighters to their knees,� he said.

Rice said she was �deeply saddened by the terrible loss of innocent life� in Israel�s attack. But she did not call for an immediate cease-fire in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militias.

�We all recognize this kind of warfare is extremely difficult,� Rice said, noting it comes in areas where civilians live. �It unfortunately has awful consequences sometimes.�

�We want a cease-fire as soon as possible,� she added.

Push for enduring settlement
The United States and Israel are pressing for a settlement that addresses enduring issues between Lebanon and Israel and disables Hezbollah � not the quick truce favored by most world leaders.

Saniora said Lebanon would be open only to an immediate cease-fire.

�There is no place at this sad moment for any discussions other than an immediate and unconditional cease-fire as well as international investigation of the Israeli massacres in Lebanon now,� he told reporters Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would not rush into a cease-fire until it achieved its goal of decimating Hezbollah, whose July 12 capture of two Israel soldiers provoked the fighting.

Protests in Beirut
More than 5,000 people protested in central Beirut, denouncing Israel and the United States, some chanting, �Destroy Tel Aviv, destroy Tel Aviv.� A few broke car windows and tried briefly to break into the main U.N. building until political leaders called for a halt to damage.

Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr questioned Israel�s claim that Hezbollah fired rockets from the village. �What do you expect Israel to say? Will it say that it killed 40 children and women?� he told Al-Jazeera television.

Qana, in the hills east of the southern port city of Tyre, has a bloody history. In 1996, Israeli artillery killed more than 100 civilians who had taken refuge at a U.N. base in the village. That attack sparked an international outcry that helped end an Israeli offensive.

Lebanese civilians have suffered the most from the fighting. Before Sunday�s attack, Lebanese officials said 458 Lebanese had been killed, most of them civilians. Thirty-three Israeli soldiers have died, and Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel have killed 19 civilians.

Fighting also broke out between guerrillas and Israeli soldiers in a zone called the Taibeh Project area, about 2 miles inside Lebanon. The Israeli army said one soldier was moderately wounded. Hezbollah�s al-Manar TV claimed two Israeli soldiers were killed.

Heavy artillery rained down on the villages of Yuhmor and Arnoun, close to Taibeh. In northern Israel, rockets fell on Nahariya, Kiryat Shemona and an area close to Maalot, the army said.