UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the Security Council on Thursday to adopt a resolution on the Israel-Hezbollah conflict which has claimed over 1,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

The UN chief is working "very intensely" with Security Council members and key leaders to push for a resolution concerning the situation along the Blue Line separating Israel from Lebanon, said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

"The secretary general is working very intensely with Security Council members and key leaders both here in New York and in capitals to push for a resolution concerning the situation along the Blue Line," said the spokesman.

"The secretary-general believes that it ought to be possible for the Security Council to adopt a resolution by the end of the week," the spokesman said following a meeting between Annan and the U.S. and French ambassadors.

Annan reiterated his call for a cessation of hostilities, saying the "fighting must stop to save civilians on both sides from the nightmare they have endured in the past four weeks," he added.

At a Security Council meeting on Tuesday, Qatar's Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani, speaking for the League of Arab States, accused the 15-member body of doing nothing while the Lebanese people have become engulfed in a "bloodbath" since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted in mid-July.

Since the start of hostilities, the Security Council has adopted a resolution temporarily extending the mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon through August, as well as two presidential statements on the violence, but refrained from calling for a ceasefire.

France and the United States, cosponsors of a draft UN resolution on Lebanon, are currently at odds over how to respond to Arab calls for Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon and an immediate ceasefire.