The resolution, which outlines the terms of a cease-fire, was brokered last week by the United States and France.

The U.S. and France has delayed action on the resolution to consider demands from Lebanon and Arab states over the withdrawal of Israeli troops.

The Security Council debate on the draft will likely be delayed until later in the week, to allow the Arab League, which is representing Lebanon, the opportunity to comment on the proposal.

Israel will also have the "right of reply" at the special Security Council hearing set to convene Tuesday.

Arab League foreign ministers, meeting in Beirut, decided Monday send a delegation to the UN to try to push through proposed Lebanese amendments to the draft, a Lebanese official said.

Ghanain Ambassador Nana Effah-Apenteng, the current Security Council president, said the 15-member body would hold a meeting Tuesday with Arab League representatives traveling to the United Nations to press for the changes.

The session makes it unlikely the 15-member body will vote before Wednesday.

But President George W. Bush resisted the Lebanese demand for an immediate withdrawal of IDF troops from southern Lebanon, saying it could create a vacuum and allow Hezbollah to rearm.

The Arab League delegation includes foreign ministers from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, and the League's secretary-general, Amr Moussa, a former Egyptian foreign minister.

U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton said the council was in "no rush" to get the text finished before the delegation arrives.

"We will consider those views very carefully," Bolton told reporters. "We will listen to reactions to other Council members and consider possible modifications in the text."

At the same time, Bolton said it was impossible to please everyone and U.S. and French officials had been in touch with Lebanon and Israeli authorities when they drafted the text.

The Lebanese official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Moussa and the foreign ministers were to leave shortly afterward for New York.

"The foreign ministers have decided to send a delegation... today to the United Nations to speak on behalf of Lebanon and to seek amendments to the Security Council resolution in line with the Lebanese demands," the official said.

Lebanon has demanded the American-French draft resolution include a call for an immediate withdrawal of some 10,000 Israeli troops from its soil.

Washington and Paris were expected to circulate a new draft, taking into account some of the amendments proposed by Qatar, the only Arab nation on the Security Council, and other members, diplomats said.

Israel on Sunday asked the U.S. government to make changes in the draft resolution. Israel also concerned about the resolution's failure to address the issue of creating an international force for Lebanon.

The current draft says merely that a second resolution will be proposed at some later date to authorize deployment of such a force. This, said a senior government source, seems to indicate "there won't be an international force, because there will never be an agreement on it."

"If they're spitting blood over a declarative resolution [like the current one], just imagine what will happen when they get to a practical resolution," he said.

The Israeli requests include the following:

1. Removing all mention of Shaba Farms, so as to avoid linking the cease-fire to an Israeli withdrawal from Shaba. However, government sources said that the United States is unlikely to accede to this.

2. Altering the clause on preventing arms transfers to Hezbollah to make the Lebanese government explicitly responsible for preventing such transfers and to give UNIFIL, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, a greater role in supervising the border crossings.

3. Instituting an explicit international embargo on arms transfers to Hezbollah. The current draft merely calls for such an embargo to be established sometime in the future.

4. Removing the reference to Israel's "offensive military operations."

Israel claims that it is merely defending itself against Hezbollah's attacks.

Rice has already announced that the resolution will be brought to a vote as is; government sources said this seems to be an effort to pressure the Lebanese government, which has already rejected the draft and is backing Hezbollah's demands.

However, the sources noted, during the Security Council debate, other countries are likely to try to alter the clauses most favorable to Israel - such as one that essentially allows Israeli troops to remain in Lebanon for the time being - to meet Lebanon's demands.

American and French representatives at the UN had been pushing to expedite the approval process and had said they would like to see a vote take place Monday, or Tuesday at the latest.

Sabliere warned that "opening the text for changes will be problematic and cause difficulties." But diplomats noted that the U.S. and France will not be able to ignore the reservations of key Security Council members, such as Russia and China, and would have to change or correct the wording.