QANA, Lebanon, (AFP) – Fifty-six people were killed, many of them sleeping children, when Israeli warplanes blitzed the Lebanese village of Qana yesterday, triggering global outrage and warnings of retribution for a “war crime” as a truce appeared more remote than ever.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, whose latest Middle East mission was thrown into turmoil by the attack, said it was time to “get to a ceasefire” in Lebanon but stopped short of calling for an immediate halt to hostilities.

Rice, on her second swing through the region in less than a week, now plans to return to Washington today to ramp up diplomatic efforts to secure a UN Security Council resolution designed to pave the way towards a ceasefire, a senior US official said.

Red Cross officials said 56 villagers, including 34 children, were killed in the pre-dawn air raid which left homes in ruins and villagers trapped under the rubble. Bahia Hariri, an MP for southern Lebanon, said 15 of the children were disabled.

It was the bloodiest attack since Israel launched its war on the Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah following the capture of two soldiers on July 12.

Israel expressed “regret” over the civilian deaths and ordered an inquiry but said it had warned residents to leave and pinned the blame on Shiite Muslim militia Hezbollah for launching rockets from the village.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he was in “no rush” for a truce and told Rice that Israel needed 10 to 14 days more to continue its offensive against Hezbollah, an Israeli government official said.

Amid faltering diplomatic efforts to staunch a conflict now in its 19th day, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan asked the Security Council in an emergency meeting to call for an immediate ceasefire.

“We must condemn this action in the strongest possible terms, and I appeal to you to do likewise,” Annan told the meeting of the 15-member council.

“I’m deeply dismayed that my earlier calls for immediate cessation of hostilities were not heard, with the result that innocent lives continue to be taken and innocent civilians continue to suffer,” he said, adding that both sides in the conflict were guilty of “grave breaches of international humanitarian law.”

The White House, Israel’s staunchest backer, urged the Jewish state to use restraint in its military offensive in Lebanon, calling the Qana killings a “horrible event”.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora denounced the Qana carnage as a “war crime,” demanding an immediate ceasefire in a conflict that Health Minister Mohammed Khalifeh said had killed 750 people.

An AFP count has put the death toll at more than 500, while the UN has said around one third of the casualties were children.