STOCKHOLM - Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora appealed Thursday to donor countries to do everything they could to help his country rebuild following the devastating Israeli offensive, putting the damage at billions of dollars.

"The direct damage from this last invasion to our infrastructure and to our public and private property is now running into the billions of dollars, while loss to GDP, job losses and the long term direct and indirect costs to the economy, including lost revenues in tourism, agriculture and industry are expected to be billions more," Siniora told a donors' meeting in Stockholm.

The meeting hopes to raise 500 million dollars (392 million euros) for Lebanon's acute humanitarian and reconstruction needs, to be disbursed by the end of the year.

The first donors' conference to be held since the conflict broke out in July aims to raise money to provide shelter for those left homeless by the Israeli bombings, access to medical care, repair key roads and bridges and markets, and remove unexploded ordnance.

Repairing schools and repairing water and electricity supplies systems are also priorities.

"The political objective is to send the message that we want to have a strong Lebanon," host of the meeting Swedish Foreign Minister Jan Eliasson told reporters ahead of the meeting.

It "is not only in the interest of the Lebanese people ... but also of the region. I think Israel and other neighbours have much to gain from a stable and prosperous Lebanon," he said.

Siniora said that unless Israel's "humiliating" air and sea blockade on Lebanon were lifted, "the recovery process, including this conference today which you earnestly called for, will be severely undermined."

"If we are to have real peace and stability in the Middle East, the root causes of this war must be addressed," he said, urging the UN Security Council to take a leading role to find lasting peace in the region.

"A comprehensive political solution can only be implemented when Israel recognizes the right of the people of Palestine to a viable and independent state, and the right of return of refugees, pursuant to relevant UN resolutions, and withdraws from all the Arab lands it occupies in Lebanon, Gaza, Jerusalem, the West Bank and in the Syrian Golan Heights in accordance with (UN) Resolution 242," he said.

"Only then will Israel enter into a just and lasting peace with its neighbors," he added.

United Nations undersecretary general Mark Malloch Brown also called for an "immediate end to the blockade and a political solution to the underlying causes of the conflict."

"Otherwise aid risks substituting for the real oxygen of recovery, private investment, which will stay away if the risk of conflict remains high," he said.

According to aid agency Oxfam, Lebanon's agricultural sector is in dire need of help.

The 34-day conflict saw up to 85 percent of Lebanon's 195,000 farmers losing all or some of their harvest at a cost of 135-185 million dollars, Oxfam said, quoting Lebanese government and Lebanese Farmers Association estimates.

Oxfam said that Lebanon's poorest people were most financially hit by the bombing campaign: 35 percent are either directly or indirectly dependent on farming while 75 percent of the country's farmers own one hectare or less.

Bombing has also made it too dangerous for many farmers to tend their fields during the key harvest time of July and August, forcing many crops including potatoes, tobacco, melons and citrus fruits to be abandoned, they added.