Nine people were killed in a Hezbollah rocket strike on Israel's third largest city of Haifa in a dramatic escalation of the Israel-Lebanon conflict that has already cost scores of lives in just five days but spurred little action from the international community.

The attack came after Israeli fighter jets went into action over Lebanon again before dawn in an ever-widening assault that has left the country almost completely cut off from the outside world.

Israeli medics said nine people were killed and dozens wounded in the Mediterranean port city of Haifa, with most casualties reported around the main railway station where the rockets struck during the morning rush hour.

The military wing of the Shiite Muslim group, whose leader Hassan Nasrallah has declared "open war" on the Jewish state, claimed it fired dozens of anti-tank missiles on the city and warned it would not spare Haifa if Israel retaliated.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who ordered the offensive against Lebanon after two soldiers were seized in a deadly raid by Hezbollah fighters last Wednesday, warned of "long term consequences" of the attack.

"Our government is determined to do everything necessary to reach our objectives. Nothing will prevent us," he said. "There will be long-term consequences on the northern border and in Lebanon and in the entire region."

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora had called Saturday for an immediate UN-sponsored ceasefire to halt the fiercest Israeli assault on its northern neighbour in 10 years and an end to Israel's "collective punishment."

Governments across the globe were drawing up emergency plans to evacuate their nationals but world powers appeared sharply divided on how to end the spiralling conflict and avoid an all-out regional war.

At least 38 civilians were killed in a relentless wave of air raids across Lebanon on Saturday that blitzed the Beirut headquarters of Nasrallah but also struck ports up and down the Mediterranean coast and convoys of villagers fleeing the assault.

Early Sunday, Israeli air strikes hit Hezbollah's television station in Beirut's southern suburbs and other targets across southern Lebanon, and also launched a new air raid and incursion into the        Gaza Strip, another battlefront.

Siniora declared Lebanon a "disaster zone" and appealed for urgent international help for a country that was slowly rebuilding after a devasating 15-year civil war and the end of a three-decade Syrian military presence.

"As we were preparing for a new start in our reform and revival process, here we are again under the firing line of the Israeli raids which murder civilians, cut the links of the country, strike vital infrastructure and violate the sovereignty of the Lebanese state," he said.

"This murderous machine is killing, destroying and displacing (civilians)," he said.

Israel says the aim of its operation is to destroy Hezbollah, which has long been a thorn in the side of the Jewish state and was instrumental in Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000.

Northern Israel has come under a barrage of rocket fire from across the border in Lebanon that has now killed a total of 21 people and wounded dozens more, leaving streets deserted as residents flee into bomb shelters.

Hezbollah also claimed a rocket attack Friday on an Israeli warship enforcing a blockade of Lebanon that left one soldier dead and three others missing, in another display of its military capabilities.

Israel had announced Saturday the deployment of a battery of anti-missile Patriot missiles in Haifa after a first rocket attack there Thursday, the first time guerrrillas had managed to penetrate so far south.

US President George W. Bush said at the Group of Eight summit in Russia that Israel had "every right to defend itself" against attack from militants backed by Iran and Syria but must be "mindful of the consequences."

Israeli television reported Sunday that Nasrallah had been injured in an attack on his stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

But a Hezbollah official categorically denied the report, saying: "This is mere Israel propaganda."

On Saturday 18 civilians, including nine children, were burnt alive when an Israeli helicopter gunship hit a convoy of families fleeing an offensive in southern Lebanon, an area that has borne the brunt of the attacks.

The Israeli military expressed regret over the civilian casualties but said it targeted an area used as a missile launch ground by Hezbollah who must take responsibility for "endangering the civilian population."

At least 100 people have died over the five-day offensive that has put Lebanon under an air and sea blockade, with wave after wave of air strikes that have shut the international airport, destroyed bridges and roads.

The Israeli military also confirmed Sunday that special forces were operating on the ground in Lebanon in conjunction with air and sea forces.

"Most of our operations are led by aircraft, and our navy is also in action, but units are also waging ground operations, about which obviously I will refuse to give details," said central command operations chief General Gadi Eisenkraut.

Israel is now fighting on two fronts, after it launched a similar deadly offensive against against Gaza over the capture of another soldier by Palestinian militants more than three weeks ago.

And with missiles also slamming into no-man's land between Lebanon and Syria, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov warned that there was a "real threat" that the conflict could engulf other nations.

However, Damascus denied its territory had been hit and Israel said Syria was "not an objective of our operation."

Iran warned its arch-enemy Israel of "unimaginable losses" if it attacked Syria and accused the United States of playing a "destructive role by vetoing resolutions and hence encouraging the Israeli crimes."

Splits have emerged within the international community, with some UN Security Council members rebuking Israel for "disproportionate" use of force but the United States insisting the Hezbollah stop its rocket attacks.

Arab League chief Amr Mussa declared the Middle East peace process "dead" after an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers on the crisis.

"The only way to revive the peace process is to take it back to the Security Council."

Foreign governments were drawing up plans for the evacuation of their nationals from Lebanon, either by land to Syria or by ferry to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

Air travel from Beirut was made impossible after the country's only international airport was shut down Thursday by Israeli air strikes that gouged large craters in the runways.

Shell-shocked Beirut residents, whose country was only recently plunged into political turmoil over the killing of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005, were stocking up on basic goods and making plans to flee to the relative safety of the mountains outside the capital.

Israel also pressed on with its assault on Gaza, killing four more Palestinians in air raids and a ground incursion on Sunday. At least 82 Palestinians and one Israel have been killed.

Both Hezbollah and Palestinian militants holding the soldiers are demanding the release of prisoners from Israeli jails -- something Israel has rejected outright.

PHOTO CAPTION

Police investigate at the site of a rocket attack by Hezbollah guerrillas at the train station in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, Sunday July 16, 2006. (AP)