Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said sending UN peacekeepers to Lebanon without a lasting ceasefire in the Middle East conflict would be a "suicide mission."

But Downer, in Kuala Lumpur for a regional foreign ministers meeting, said that Australia would not withdraw its UN observers from the troubled region.

"Well I think there is no point in sending an international peacekeeping mission on a suicide mission," Downer said when asked about the prospects of UN peacekeepers going to Lebanon...

...Downer said a ceasefire could only happen when Hezbollah stops firing missiles into Israel and Lebanese government takes control over southern Lebanon from the militia.

"In the situation where Hezbollah are firing missiles from southern Lebanon into Israel, it is not realistic to accept that Israelis will just sit in their villages and towns and receive their missiles and die," he said...