ST. PETERSBURG  (AP) —  Group of Eight (G-8) leaders were told Iran was seriously considering a package of incentives aimed at getting it to halt its nuclear programme, South African President Thabo Mbeki said Monday.

TEHRAN — Western analysts see Iran as relishing an Israeli offensive that will divert mounting pressure away from its nuclear programme and say Hizbollah could not have acted without a nod from its old ally Tehran.

DAMASCUS (AP) — The United Nations and Britain urged the deployment of peacekeepers in Lebanon and Russia offered troops for any such force, as the UN dispatched an envoy to Israel on Monday in the first big swirl of diplomatic efforts to stem the Mideast violence.

BEIRUT — Israel’s assault on Lebanon threatens to weaken Arab moderates throughout the region, bolstering the image of Islamic fighters at a time when anger among the Arab public is running high over the “war on terror” and America’s role in Iraq.

ISRAELI AIR STRIKES killed 42 people across Lebanon on Monday, including 10 civilians hit on a southern bridge, on the sixth day of a bombardment that has wreaked the heaviest destruction in Lebanon for over 20 years.

Lebanon has accused the United States of blocking a Security Council statement calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, and said the impotence of the UN’s most powerful body sent wrong signals to small countries.

Israel continued to pound Beirut’s southern suburb on Sunday, the fifth successive day of an offensive on Lebanon. The air strikes, which killed 35 civilians on Saturday, including 15 children, were meant to punish the Lebanese government for failing to disarm the resistance group Hezbollah.  

At least 12 Lebanese villagers, including women and children, were killed on Saturday in an Israeli air strike on vehicles fleeing a village in southern Lebanon, a witness said. The convoy was leaving the border village of Marwahin when it was attacked.

Palestinian economy ministry in Gaza hit BEIRUT (Reuters) — Israel killed at least 34 civilians on Saturday, including 15 children, in air strikes meant to punish Lebanon for letting Hizbollah guerrillas menace the Jewish state’s northern border.

CAIRO (AFP) — The Arab League on Saturday declared the Middle East peace process to be “dead” as foreign ministers met in an emergency session in Cairo and unanimously condemned the Israeli offensive in Lebanon.