When she arrived in Israel, Rice defended the need to ensure that Hezbollah is dislodged from the south Lebanon border region before any cease-fire is declared.

"Every peace has to be based on enduring principles," Rice said Monday.

The UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland has issued an urgent appeal for $150 million in aid to Lebanon. He also called on Israel to open the southern port of Tyre to allow ships to deliver aid to the south of the country.

"We are particularly worried about the population in south Lebanon and the (eastern) Bekaa Valley. It's there that they're in the crossfire and from where they're being displaced," Egeland said in Beirut before leaving the country Monday.

US President George W. Bush ordered US Navy ships that have evacuated nearly 12,000 Americans from Lebanon to start delivering humanitarian aid to the country on Tuesday.

"We are working with Israel and Lebanon to open up humanitarian corridors," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

Two ships docked at Beirut and convoys entered from Syria, bearing blankets, food, medicine - and two convoys of trucks took material to the worst hit areas in the south along dangerous and broken roads.

So far Israel has loosened its blockade of Lebanese ports to let aid ships into Beirut, but has not defined any safe land routes for convoys to the south.

Tens of thousands of refugees are in temporary shelters, supplies of medicine are tight at many hospitals and fuel is slowly running out under Israel's blockade of Lebanon's ports.

Israel appeared to be easing bombardment in populated areas and roads in Lebanon that has killed hundreds, displaced as many as 750,000 and dismembered the transportation network. Instead, it appeared to be focusing its firepower on Hezbollah at the front. Beirut saw no strikes all Monday in apparent deference to Rice's visit. Lebanese security officials reported three civilian deaths, without specifying where they occurred. Thirty strikes in and around towns and on roads were reported Monday by security officials and Lebanese media - down from 37 the day before.

The numbers do not include strikes on Hezbollah positions that are not in populated areas. Israel reported 270 strikes on Sunday, suggesting that a large number were in more isolated regions.

Still, Hezbollah was able to launch 80 rockets into northern Israel on Monday, wounding 13 people lightly, a rate only slightly lower than in past days.

At the front Tuesday, an Israeli military official said his side had surrounded Bint Jbail, a town that has symbolic importance to Hezbollah as one of the centers of resistance to the Israeli occupation 1982-2000.

Israeli forces have seized some houses on the outskirts of the hilltop town, but do not yet control Bint Jbail, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as a press statement had not been issued.

Up to 200 Hezbollah guerrillas are believed to be defending the town, which lies about 2.5 miles north of the Israeli border.

Israeli jets demolished a house in Nabatiyeh, which lies 16 miles north of Bint Jbail. It was not immediately clear what the Israeli jet was targeting.

Hospital and security officials said the attack killed seven civilians - the house's owner, Saad Hamza, his wife and two sons, and three other males.

Hamza's daughter was seriously injured in the raid and the wife of one of the male fatalities remained under the rubble, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the press. It was not known if the woman under the debris was alive.