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Diplomat ... Dr Rice with US embassy staff in Beirut
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew unannounced to Beirut to seek a "sustainable" ceasefire in Lebanon, where Hezbollah guerrillas were battling an Israeli tank incursion in the south.
Dr Rice met Prime Minister Fouad Siniora after arriving by helicopter from Cyprus in a city pounded by Israeli air strikes almost every day since the 13-day-old war began.
"Thank you for your courage and steadfastness," she told Mr Siniora, who has repeatedly pleaded for an immediate ceasefire.
There was no immediate word on the outcome of her meeting with Mr Siniora, which lasted more than two hours, longer than planned.
On her way to the region, Dr Rice said she wanted to create conditions for a sustainable ceasefire in a war that has cost 377 dead in Lebanon and at least 37 Israeli lives in 13 days.
A US official in Dr Rice's party said she would announce aid for Lebanon, where Israeli bombing has displaced half a million people and wrecked installations worth an estimated $US1 billion ($1.33 billion).The Government said 110,000 refugees were being housed in 642 schools and other temporary shelters across Lebanon.
"I am deeply concerned about the Lebanese people and what they are enduring," Dr Rice said before starting talks with Shiite Muslim Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
"I am concerned about the humanitarian situation," she said, without giving details of any American assistance.
Mr Berri is a pro-Syrian politician who has liaised between Mr Siniora and Hezbollah leaders since the war erupted.
Hezbollah said it had shot down an Israeli helicopter and hit five tanks, inflicting casualties in fierce battles that erupted after Israeli forces pushed north from a border village.
Arab television channels said two Israeli soldiers had been killed. Israel's army reported nine wounded. An Israeli military source said a helicopter had crashed, but was not shot down.
Israeli air raids killed at least five people and wounded 50 in south Lebanon. Bombs also hit a Shiite area of Beirut.
Hezbollah rockets struck Haifa, Nahariya and the border town of Shlomi, wounding at least four people.
Rockets have killed 17 Israelis since the start of the war, launched after Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a raid across the border on July 12. Twenty soldiers have also died. The United States, which blames Hezbollah and its allies in Syria and Iran for the crisis, insists any ceasefire deal must remove the threat to Israel posed by the Shiite group.
