'Fighting will stop when soldiers are freed and attacks end'

Occupied Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Monday that the fighting in Lebanon would end when the two soldiers captured by Hezbollah were freed, rocket attacks on Israel stopped and the Lebanese army deployed along the border.

Delivering an impassioned speech to Israel's parliament after six days of fighting with Lebanon, Olmert said Israel would have no mercy on militants who attack its cities with rockets, and he pledged to destroy militant infrastructure.

"We shall seek out every installation, hit every terrorist helping to attack Israeli citizens, destroy all the terrorist infrastructure, in every place. We shall continue this until Hezbollah does the basic and fair things required of it by every civilised person," he said.

"Israel will not agree to live in the shadow of the threat of missiles or rockets against its residents."

Israeli officials have said publicly that Israel would not stop fighting until Hezbollah, a Shiite militia that controls much of south Lebanon, is dismantled.

However, Olmert's comments on Monday - seeking the release of the soldiers, the end of Hezbollah attacks on Israel and the deployment of Lebanese troops in south Lebanon - seemed to be a softening of that position.

Over the past six days 24 Israelis, half of them civilians, were killed in the fighting with Lebanon, while nearly 200 Lebanese, many of them civilians, were killed on the other side.

The fighting began when Hezbollah kidnapped the soldiers in a cross-border raid.