Pope Benedict has insisted on an immediate ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, directly challenging the American-led position that conditions are not yet right for a halt in fighting. 

Speaking on Wednesday in St Peter's Square, where he resumed his weekly general audiences, the Pope said: "I renew a pressing appeal for an immediate cessation of all hostilities and all violence!"

Before a crowd of some 40,000 youngsters who were in Rome for an international congress of altar servers, Pope Benedict said, "Nothing can justify the shedding of innocent blood, no matter what side it comes from."

He recalled the "chilling images" of the children killed in the Lebanese town of Qana and urged "the international community and all those more directly involved to put down conditions for a definitive political solution to the crisis as soon as possible".

It was the Pope's second appeal this week. "In the name of God I turn to all those responsible for this violence, so that all sides immediately lay down their arms!" Pope Benedict said on Sunday at his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo. He carefully avoided mentioning any country by name - including Lebanon, which has born the brunt of Israeli shelling. However, he forcefully pointed out that the "ever more serious and tragic situation that the Middle East is experiencing" had achieved nothing except an escalation of death and hatred. This, he said, was proof that "instruments of violence" could not bring peace and stability to the region.

Several hundred people who jammed into the courtyard below his window for the  Angelus chanted "Peace! Peace!" and he responded by saying, "Yes, peace!"

The Pope then called on "governments and international institutions" to "spare no effort in obtaining the necessary cessation of hostilities" in the region. While the United States leads a small group of countries opposed to an immediate ceasefire, the European Union this week approved a motion for an instant halt in the fighting.

During his lengthy appeal on Sunday the Pope also urged "people of good will" to intensify the shipment of humanitarian aid to "those populations so tried and needy".

Even without naming any countries or groups involved in the fighting, it was undoubtedly Pope Benedict's most pressing and heartfelt appeal for peace in a conflict that is now stretching into its fourth week. He lamented the "hundreds of dead, the many wounded, the numberless mass of homeless and refugees, the destruction of homes, cities and infrastructures" and the "growth of hatred and desire for revenge". He said: "These facts clearly demonstrate that it's not possible to re-establish justice, create a new order and build an authentic peace through instruments of violence." Several days earlier the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, said the current conflict is part of a bigger strategy to "create a new order in the Middle East" and that arresting hostilities at this point would not bring lasting peace.

At a multinational summit here in Rome on 26 July the Americans blocked a motion for an immediate ceasefire.

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