Israel also destroyed two buildings in the village of Kfar Jouz near Nabatiyeh, and civil defense teams were struggling to rescue people believed buried in the rubble, witnesses said.

Warplanes pounded roads in southeastern Lebanon, a Lebanese army checkpoint in Ansar village and a castle in Arnoun village near the Lebanon-Israel border. In addition, Israeli jets fired more than 30 missiles at suspected Hezbollah hideouts in hills and mountainous areas in the southern part of the country, security officials said.

Meanwhile, the guerrillas continued to launch rockets into northern Israel on Friday, with 10 fired at the towns of Ma'alot, Karmiel and Safed by midmorning, the army said. No casualties were reported.

At least 438 people have been reported killed in Lebanon since fighting broke out between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas, most of them Lebanese civilians. But Lebanon's health minister estimated Thursday that as many as 600 civilians have been killed so far in the offensive.

Thirty-three Israeli soldiers have died in the fighting and 19 civilians have been killed in Hezbollah's unyielding rocket attacks on Israel's northern towns, the army said.

The army said Friday that Israeli troops have killed about 200 Hezbollah guerrillas since fighting began more than two weeks ago. Hezbollah has reported far fewer casualties.

Israel launched its offensive in Lebanon on July 12, after Hezbollah guerrillas overran the border, killing eight soldiers and capturing two others. Israeli forces opened an earlier offensive in the

Gaza Strip on June 28, three days after Hamas militants attacked Israeli army post in southern Israeli, killing two soldiers and capturing another one.

Hezbollah and Hamas have both demanded the release of Hezbollah and Palestinian prisoners in return for freedom for the three Israeli captives, but Israel's government has refused.

Israel decided on Thursday not to expand its ground battle with Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon for now, but the Cabinet authorized the army to call up 30,000 reserve soldiers in case the fighting intensified.

Rice, who was attending a regional security conference in Malaysia on Friday, had said earlier that she was "willing and ready" to return to the region to work for a sustainable peace agreement.

"I do think it is important that groundwork be laid so I can make the most of whatever time I can spend there," she said at a news conference Friday.

Israel radio and the Haaretz newspaper reported that Rice will fly to Israel on Saturday night to discuss the Mideast crisis. Haaretz said she plans to meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday. Israel's foreign ministry and the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv declined to comment.

The United States, adopting a diplomatic stance that has not been embraced by allies, has been insisting that any cease-fire to the violence must come with conditions. Otherwise, Rice and other U.S. officials have said repeatedly, they fear just a repetition of the on-again, off-again violence of recent years.

During a meeting in Rome on Wednesday, Rice faced strong demands from European governments for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon. But she won extra time for Israel's military campaign against Hezbollah, arguing for a "sustainable" cease-fire, one that would allow Lebanon's government to assert its authority over Hezbollah's control of southern Lebanon and diminish the influence of Syria and Iran in Lebanon's affairs.

Bush has suggested he would support the offensive for as long as it would take to cripple Hezbollah. He also sharply condemned Iran for supporting the guerrillas.

In his meeting with Bush on Friday, Blair's spokesman said the British prime minister would try "to increase the urgency, the pace of diplomacy, in identifying the practical steps that are necessary to bring about a cease-fire on both sides."

"We want to accelerate discussions that are going on among the international community, identifying those who would serve in a stabilization force, and increase the tempo of putting that stabilization force together," the spokesman said.

Fierce ground battles that raged Wednesday in the Lebanese border villages of Bint Jbail and Maroun al-Ras appeared to have abated, with UN observers reporting only "sporadic fighting" there Thursday. Early Friday, Israel ground forces were fighting guerrillas in Bint Jbail, but no casualties were reported.

On Thursday, the Israeli military installed a Patriot interceptor missile battery north of Tel Aviv, saying it believes the area could be in range of missiles that Hezbollah has obtained from Syria, Israel Defense Forces said. The Patriot system can intercept long-range missiles fired at Israel but not the short-range Katyusha rockets, hundreds of which have been fired by Hezbollah from southern Lebanon.