"There has been suggestion in the past by the Lebanese that they would want to transform Hezbhollah into a sort of a national guard, bringing it under command of the army,"

Annan told reporters. "There's many ways to skin a cat."

Rice has ruled out U.S. combat troops as part of any peacekeeping force. That doesn't exclude, however, a U.S. role in providing intelligence, transportation, training and equipment for peacekeepers operating with a U.N. mandate.

Blair suggested that Friday's initiative has broad support across Europe, where leaders have been critical of Israel's assertive response to the kidnapping of its soldiers and have widely urged an immediate cease-fire. As he has for nearly six years, Blair has sought in recent days to play the role of policy broker between Bush and his European counterparts.

Blair said he has consulted extensively on the matter in recent days with the leaders of France, Germany, Turkey and the president of the European Union, among others.

Bush, who keeps a bust of Britain's gutsy World War II premier, Winston Churchill, in the Oval Office, praised his "close relationship" with Blair. He even joked about an embarrassing impromptu conversation the two had at the Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, two weeks ago, when a microphone Bush thought was off broadcast his salty dialogue with Blair.

"You tell me what you think, you share with me your perspective, and you let me know when the microphone is on," Bush said to Blair, tapping the podium microphone before him for effect.

Both Bush and Blair cast the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict as a part of the larger battle being waged between a shift to Middle East democracy and a move by Islamic militants to undercut democratic change.

"The stakes are larger than just Lebanon," said Bush. Hezbollah and its Syrian and Iranian patrons, said Bush, are linked in ideology and tactics to Hamas militants he accused of trying to derail democracy in the Palestinian territories and to al-Qaida and its partners in the insurgency in Iraq.

"The notion of democracy beginning to emerge scares the ideologues, the totalitarians, those who want to impose their vision," said Bush, dismissing the charge that the invasion of Iraq and other aspects of his policies have fueled Islamic and Arab anger. "They've always been violent," he said.

Blair, who has stood by Bush in Iraq, built on the theme.

"What has happened in the past few weeks is not an isolated incident," said Blair. "There is a big picture out in the Middle East, which is about reactionary and terrorist groups trying to stop what the vast majority of people in the Middle East want, which is progress towards democracy, liberty, human rights — the same as the rest of us," said Blair. "That's the battle that's going on.

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