BEIJING, July 18 (Xinhua) -- World leaders at the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Russia called for the deployment of multinational peacekeeping forces to stop Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon from firing rockets into Israel, as attacks continued and westerners fled Lebanon on Monday.

    The leaders meeting in St. Petersburg stressed that the international force would need a mandate from the United Nations.

    The violence in the Middle East "is not going to stop unless we create the conditions for the cessation of violence," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Monday after talks with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

    "The only way is if we have a deployment of international forces that can stop bombardment coming into Israel," Blair said after he and Annan made their call for the deployment of the forces.

    Blair said he wanted a force larger than the current 2,000-strong UN force which monitors the Blue Line separating Israel and Lebanon and is responsible for reporting violations by either side.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country would decide whether to send troops after the UN Security Council had endorsed the proposal, and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said Italy would contribute in a "significant way" if there were a Security Council mandate.

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that contributing troops was not on Germany's agenda. U.S. national security spokesman Frederick Jones said Washington was "open to the possibility of that force being necessary."

    However, Israel's response to the proposal was cool. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert favored Lebanese forces taking control of thearea of the border with Israel and demanded the Hezbollah militia be disarmed.

    Israeli warplanes continued to blast the Hezbollah stronghold on Beirut's southern suburbs early Tuesday. Hezbollah rockets alsoknocked down a three-story house in northern Israel and wounded atleast three people, Israeli medics said.

    Westerners fled by land, sea and air as the Israel-Hezbollah hostilities continued. A commercial ship, escorted by a U.S. destroyer, will begin evacuating some of the 25,000 Americans in Lebanon on Tuesday.

    So far, about 210 Lebanese had been reported killed in the six days of fighting. At least 24 Israelis also have been killed.

    But there were also signs of diplomatic progress to end the Israel-Hezbollah fighting as Israel signaled it might scale back its demands.

    Olmert had said that two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah had to be freed and Hezbollah had to pull back from the border for the fighting to come to an end. Enditem