Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit on Wednesday strongly denounced Israel's decision to widen military operations in Lebanon while calling for a peaceful solution to the crisis, the official MENA news agency reported.

Abul Gheit's condemnation came after the Israeli security cabinet approved expanding the army's ground operations in south Lebanon earlier in the day.

The minister said that Israel's decision would only lead to more killings and destruction, adding that it would escalate the situation rather than halting the fighting.

Abul Gheit also said that the Israeli behavior ran counter to the efforts of the Lebanese government to head off the escalation and seek a peaceful solution to the crisis in line with the international legitimacy resolutions.

He added that a decision by the Lebanese government to deploy 15,000 soldiers in southern Lebanon reflected Lebanon's keenness on creating favorable conditions to help all parties at the UN Security Council to approve a resolution to halt the fighting.

The Egyptian diplomacy has been working with the UN Security Council member states and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to draft a UN resolution taking into account a seven-point plan presented by Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

Siniora proposed a seven-point plan at an international conference on the Lebanon crisis in Rome on July 26.

The plan envisages a ceasefire and an exchange of prisoners as well as sending the Lebanese army into south Lebanon.

So far, about 1,000 Lebanese have been killed and a quarter of Lebanon's population displaced since Israel launched a massive assault on Lebanese Hezbollah on July 12 in retaliation for the abduction of two Israeli soldiers by the Shiite group in a cross-border raid.