Tyre, July 29 (AP): Israeli air raids destroyed a bridge in the eastern Bekaa Valley on early Saturday after Hezbollah guerrillas launched a new kind of rocket that made its deepest strike into Israel yet.

The strikes came as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was due back in the Middle East to make a second attempt to end the fighting.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the discussions, said possible elements of Rice's proposal included an international agreement on a U.N.-mandated multinational force for south Lebanon, disarming Hezbollah and integrating the guerrilla force into the Lebanese army; urging Hezbollah to return Israeli prisoners; a commitment to resolve border issues and an international reconstruction plan for Lebanon.

The United States, backed by Britain, wants to bring about a transformation of the Middle East it contends will ensure long-term peace before it presses for a stop to fighting, but diplomatic efforts are solidifying into two sharply divided camps.

Many Europeans and Arab countries are increasing the pressure for an immediate cease-fire first, followed by a plan to tackle the more complicated issues of curbing Hezbollah's guerrillas.

Most sides agree on the idea of bringing international forces into the south to end Hezbollah's decade-long free rein there _ but still unresolved is how and when.

The deadlock leaves the 18-day-old battle to drag on.

Beaches in Beirut were black with oil spilled from a power station that was blasted by Israel two weeks ago and is still burning. In the south, rescue workers dug through the rubble of bombed houses, looking for bodies. Israel deployed a Patriot interceptor missile battery north of Tel Aviv, believing the area could be in range of Hezbollah's barrages.

The United Nations moved 50 unarmed observers from their posts to the better protected positions of 2,000 lightly armed U.N. peacekeepers along the border, after an Israeli bomb killed four observers this week.

With medicine, food and shelter still only trickling to the war zone in the south, the U.N. humanitarian chief called for a three-day truce to let help get in and let thousands of civilians trapped in the heat of the battle to get out _ a call that got no response.

In Washington, U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Friday they want an international force dispatched quickly to southern Lebanon. But they said any plan to end the fighting must address the long-term issue of disarming Hezbollah.

``This is a moment of intense conflict in the Middle East,'' Bush said. ``Yet our aim is to turn it into a moment of opportunity and a chance for broader change in the region.''

Rice plans to arrive in Jerusalem late Saturday evening, according to senior State Department officials traveling with her. Bush said Rice would work with Israeli and Lebanese leaders on a solution, after the secretary of state visited both countries earlier this week.

In Beirut, Hezbollah signed onto a peace plan put together by the Western-backed prime minister that calls for an international force and the Lebanese army to move into south Lebanon _ a step that could mean the withdrawal of guerrillas from the border and eventual disarming.

But the plan requires not only a cease-fire first _ but also a prisoner exchange and a resolution of several longstanding disputes between Israel and Lebanon that Beirut says fuel Hezbollah's strength and gives it a reason to continue fighting.

A visiting team of European Union leaders praised the proposals and the show of unity in Lebanon's government, which has been paralyzed by divisions over the crisis. ``We think (the plan) forms a good basis for a regional agreement,'' said Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioka, whose country holds the EU presidency.

French President Jacques Chirac said his country will press for the rapid adoption of a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon, increasing the pressure on the United States and Israel.

Hezbollah signaled that it intends to escalate the battle, announcing that it used a new rocket, the Khaibar-1 _ named after the site of a famed battle between Islam's prophet Muhammad and Jewish tribes in the Arabian peninsula _ to strike the northern Israeli town of Afula.

Five of the rockets crashed into empty fields outside Afula on Friday, causing no injuries

``With this, the Islamic Resistance begins a new stage of fighting, challenge and confrontation with a strong determination and full belief in God's victory,'' Hezbollah said in a statement.

Israel said the rockets were renamed Fajr-5's, one of the most powerful weapons believed to be in Hezbollah's arsenal _ four times the power and range of Katyusha rockets. Hundreds of Katyushas have hit northern Israel in the current fighting, including 96 on Friday, one of which hit a hospital.

The strike came two days after Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah vowed his guerrillas would fire rockets beyond Haifa, Israel's third-largest city, which has been hit repeatedly in the conflict.

The Israeli air force carried out over 120 attacks in Lebanon over a 36-hour period ending Saturday morning, the Israeli military said.

Two air raids destroyed a bridge on the Orontes river in the Bekaa Valley early Saturday, largely cutting off the town of Hermel from the rest of the country. There were no casualties, residents said.

In southern Lebanon, Israeli missile strikes and artillery rained down around towns and roads on Friday, targeting rocket sites and buildings believed connected to Hezbollah but wreaking destruction in populated areas.

One airstrike flattened a house in the village of Hadatha, and six people inside were believed dead or wounded, the Lebanese state news agency reported. Hezbollah's al-Manar TV said all six were dead.

Missiles destroyed three buildings in the village of Kfar Jouz near the market town of Nabatiyeh, apparently targeting the apartment of a Hezbollah activist. A Jordanian was killed in a nearby house, and the blasts collapsed a shelter, killing a Lebanese husband and wife.

Three women were killed in strikes on their homes in other southern villages, security officials said. A wounded woman was rushed to the hospital in the village of Ain Arab, and more people were believed trapped in the debris of a destroyed building there.

An explosion, believed to be from Israeli artillery, hit a convoy evacuating villagers from Rmeish, lightly wounding a driver and a Lebanese cameraman for German TV news. Another strike hit a potato truck and a nearby car, wounding three.

Hezbollah said its guerrillas attacked Israeli troops on a ridge overlooking Bint Jbail and in Maroun al-Ras, a nearby villages that Israeli troops overran last weekend. Seven Israeli soldiers were wounded, including one seriously, the army said.

At least 445 people have been killed in Lebanon in the fighting, most of them civilians, according to a Health Ministry count Friday based on bodies taken to hospitals. But Lebanon's health minister estimated Thursday that as many as Lebanese 600 civilians have been killed, with other victims buried in rubble.

On the Israeli side, 33 soldiers have died in fighting, and Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel have killed 19 civilians, the Israeli army said.

The army said Friday that Israeli troops have killed about 200 Hezbollah guerrillas, but Hezbollah has reported only 35 casualties.

Israeli television reported heavy fighting Friday around Bint Jbail, where the Israeli military suffered its worst casualties in a single battle of the campaign, with nine soldiers killed in and near the town Wednesday.

Hezbollah said its guerrillas attacked Israeli troops on a ridge overlooking Bint Jbail and in Maroun al-Ras, a nearby villages that Israeli troops overran last weekend. It said five Israeli soldiers were wounded. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army.

Bin Jbail has the largest Shiite community along the border; it was known as the ``capital of the resistance'' during Israel's 1982-2000 occupation because of its vehement support for the Shiite Hezbollah.