BEIRUT, Lebanon - The US desire to oversee the birth of a "new Middle East" came in for ridicule in Beirut cafes on Tuesday, on the eve of Rome talks on finding a solution to the Lebanon-Israel crisis.

As diplomats from around the world converged on the Italian capital, young Lebanese in the capital questioned whether any deal would emerge that would take into account their concerns -- and not just those of US President George W. Bush's government.

"I think what we are seeing right now is a masterplan that started in the US and that ends in Israel," said Ali Mansour, a 21-year-old medical student at the American University of Beirut.

He took issue with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's statement that the death and destruction in Lebanon were simply the birth pains of a "new Middle East".

"Who is she to say this the birth of a new Middle East? Who asked her to play doctor in administering this childbirth?" he said.

A friend and fellow medical student, Ali Khalifeh, sitting next to him in a modern, air-conditioned cafe in upmarket Hamra Street, said America's credibility as a powerbroker between Arab states and Israel was in tatters because of its political and military support of Israel's two weeks of raids.

"Instead of sending aid to us, they could stop sending bombs to Israel," he said, referring to US reports that Bush's government has expedited shipments of precision bombs to Israel for its campaign.

Mansour added: "People giving weapons and machinery to Israel to crush Lebanon aren't the best people we should look to for a solution."

While they admitted that Lebanon was deeply divided in its support for Hezbollah, they argued the disarmament of the Shiite radical movement and its removal from southern Lebanon should be exclusively handled by the Lebanese themselves.

The idea of an international force in a buffer zone in the region -- a key proposal that will be on the table at the Rome talks -- was likely to radicalise those who sympathised with Hezbollah but rejected its religious ideology and refusal to accept Israel's existence, they said.

If a NATO or UN force was deployed, "it would just be another occupation", Mansour said, adding coldly that youths like him would battle the foreign soldiers, even with "suicide bombings" if necessary.

Lebanese politicians were more cautious in their prognoses but had a similarly pessimistic view for the crisis meeting.

A parliamentarian from the Amal group allied to Hezbollah, Ali Hassan Khalil, stressed the Shiite militia's rejection of the US push for a comprehensive solution addressing "root causes" instead of an immediate ceasefire.

"There are no steps towards a solution because some parties are waiting for a change in the military situation," he said.

"We first want a ceasefire and not the imposition of conditions under fire and the threat of more carnage and destruction."

A rival MP in the anti-Syrian majority who attended a meeting with Rice on Monday, Boutros Harb, said the current situation "doesn't lend itself to work towards a comprehensive solution."

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