Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heads into a summit in Rome aiming to win acceptance of an international force for southern Lebanon that could help end hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

The top US diplomat yesterday finished a two-day trip to Lebanon, Israel and the West Bank in which she expressed hope for an enduring cease-fire between Israel and the militia of the Islamic movement Hezbollah, while saying "the international community has hard work ahead of it.'' Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria, rejects a force that would eventually replace Israeli troops in a security zone, a concept outlined yesterday by Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz. That leaves European governments and Arab allies of the US, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, to figure out how to create such a buffer.

If Rice accomplished anything on her trip to Lebanon and Israel, “it's only going to be brought together in Rome,” said Daniel Kurtzer, a former US ambassador to Israel.

”She's got to come back from that with not just a package, but a package and a process.”

So far, Italy is the only country to have stepped forward and offered soldiers for the mission. US troops won't be part of it, according to American officials.

“The composition of the force is probably the single biggest obstacle to its creation,” Kurtzer said. He added said any international military mission would have to have enough “NATO members to make it serious,” as well as an Arab component. “Otherwise Hezbollah will say it's a colonial power,” he said.

The buffer force would be designed to help the Lebanese army patrol southern Lebanon and keep Hezbollah rockets from within striking distance of Israeli towns.

Joining Rice in Rome will be United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and several European countries. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora also will attend the gathering, at which Rice will spend about five hours. Israel isn't sending a representative.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, the host of the summit, said yesterday creating the force, attaining a cease-fire and providing humanitarian aid will be the main items on the agenda.

With the flurry of diplomacy, crude oil fell yesterday on speculation that the conflict won't spread through the Middle East, source of about a third of the world's oil. Crude for September delivery fell $1,30, or 1,7%, to close at $73,75 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Rice left Israel yesterday with pledges from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to facilitate safe passage for shipments of humanitarian assistance to Lebanese civilians. Rice put no pressure on Israel to end its offensive and indicated that there may be no quick resolution to the conflict.

Rice took no questions from reporters during her Middle East swing, which included at a stop yesterday in Ramallah, where she paid a courtesy call on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Her aides said Rice limited her public remarks to avoid jeopardizing international efforts to halt two weeks of fighting that has left at least 386 Lebanese and 41 Israelis dead, forced thousands of Lebanese from their homes and Israelis into underground shelters.

As the diplomats prepared to gather in Rome, there seemed no quick end in sight to the crisis. Israel shelled targets in Beirut and Hezbollah rockets continued to fall in northern Israel.

“We are building a new security zone, a zone that will be covered by fire from our forces, until the arrival of a multinational force that can take over and be responsible for what happens there,” Peretz said in a statement faxed from his office.

Hezbollah, founded in 1982, has claimed credit or been linked to scores of attacks on Israelis and Americans, including rocket attacks on Israeli towns, the 1983 bombing that killed 241 US soldiers in Beirut and the 1994 attack that killed 95 at a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.

Rice's trip was her first visit to Israel and the Palestinian areas since November, when she negotiated a safe passage agreement for Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip into Israel. That deal has not been implemented.

Since then, the Palestinian group Hamas, which has carried out scores of suicide bombings against Israelis, swept to power in January elections, putting any prospect of a resumption of peace talks on ice.

The July 12 seizure of Israeli soldiers along Lebanon's border and Israel's raids on Lebanon overshadowed Israel's conflict with the Palestinians as the prospect of a wider Middle East war loomed. Rice canceled all but one stop on an Asia tour - a summit in Kuala Lampur later this week - to attend to the Middle East flare-up.

Rice's visit to Abbas was aimed at showing that the US had not forgotten the Palestinian issue, a US official traveling with her told reporters.

“We talked, of course, about the fact that even as the Lebanon situation resolves, we must remain focused on what is happening here in the Palestinian territories,” Rice said in a joint appearance with Abbas in Ramallah.

Rice arrived at Abbas's office in the Palestinian leadership compound, where Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, lies buried.

Her convoy traveled a circuitous 35-minute route from Jerusalem through the West Bank to Ramallah where several hundred protesters turned out against her visit and in support of the Lebanese people. Demonstrators chanted, “Condoleezza Rice go home.”