More than 60 people were killed, including over 37 children, when Israeli warplanes bombed the village of Qana in the pre-dawn air raid which left homes in ruins and villagers trapped under the rubble, triggering global outrage and warnings of retribution for a "war crime."

"The Israelis are committing really, state-sponsored terrorism," Siniora said on the CBS television program "Face the Nation."

"These crimes are against humanity that are being committed by the Israelis," he said, calling on "the American people to stand for peace and to ask for an immediate cease-fire."

Siniora said more than half of those killed in the Israeli air raid on Qana were children including one "less than one day old."

Israel expressed "regret" over the civilian deaths and ordered an inquiry but said it had warned residents to leave and pinned the blame Hizbullah for launching rockets from the village.

However Siniora said there was no Israeli warning ahead of the strike. "They were not warned," the Lebanese prime minister said.

Despite the warnings, Israel has repeatedly targeted and killed car and bus loads of families as they flee from the war zones.

"And in fact, the village had more than 50 raids at that time, all night," Siniora said. "And people got shelter in the building, and they were killed in the shelter."

"More than 700 people got killed by now, and more than 3,000 are injured," he said, calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire between Israel and Hizbullah fighters.

One in five survived

"Why have they attacked one- and two-year-old children and defenseless women?" said a man who lost family members.

In Qana -- scene of another deadly bombardment 10 years ago -- rescue workers with only their bare hands clawed through rubble of flattened homes and an underground shelter to find survivors while mothers hugged their dead children in a final hopeless embrace.

Among the buildings hit in the two hours of raids on the southern village of Qana was a shelter where dozens had fled to escape Israeli bombardment of areas thought to be even more exposed.

"After the bombardment there was dust everywhere. We couldn't see anything. I succeeded in getting out and everything collapsed. I have several members of the family inside and I do not think there will be any other survivors," said a distraught Ibrahim Shalhoub, 26.

"The bombing was so intense that no-one could move. Rescue efforts could only start this morning," said the man, one of just five people believed to have survived the strike on the shelter.

"The first thing I remember is spinning around. My head hit the wall and I heard screams," said Qassem Shalhoub, who lost many family members. "They were all calling at me. They were saying, 'stop the bleeding.' Others said, 'pull my son from the rubble.'"

"I retrieved my son and my husband, Sheikh Mohamad, who were wounded. But when I came back to get my daughter who had stayed in the shelter, it was too late because the building had crumpled," cried a woman identified as Rahba.

Terrified mothers held up and then embraced the bodies of their dead children, still wearing the pajamas they had gone to sleep in. The bodies were covered in dust.

In Israel, the military rejected responsibility for civilian deaths in Qana, saying that Hizbullah was to blame for using the village as a rocket-launching site.

A day earlier, warplanes struck outside the market town of Nabatiyeh, crushing a house and killing a woman, her five children, and a man in a nearby house, Lebanese security officials said. In the southern port city of Tyre, volunteers buried 31 victims of the bombardment in a mass grave, among them a 1-day-old girl.

Qana was the site of an Israeli bombing of a United Nations base on April 18, 1996 that killed 105 people who had taken refuge there during Israel's "Grapes of Wrath" offensive -- also aimed at wiping out Hizbullah.

Ten years later tragedy has returned to Qana.

"There was a first bombardment at 1:00 am (2200 GMT Saturday)," said resident Ghazi Aaidibi. "A few people went out of the shelter and about 10 minutes later a second bombardment destroyed it. There were 63 people inside, from the Shalhub and Hashem families."

Another 48 hours

Israel has agreed an immediate 48-hour suspension of air strikes over southern Lebanon to allow an investigation into the massacre in Qana. However, Israel is reserving the right to take action against any targets it says are preparing attacks against it.

The country that has massacred 750 innocent civilians cannot even agree to a fair ceasefire.

Israeli 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 Hizbullah, an Israeli government official said.

Amid faltering diplomatic efforts to staunch a conflict now in its 19th day, U.N. 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.

Annan also said that Israel informed The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) that it was important for residents of Ramieh and Aita al Shaab to evacuate their towns before Sunday evening, a signal that warplanes would resume pounding these areas.

Premier Fouad Saniora 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.

Siniora ruled out any talks on putting an end to the conflict until there was an immediate halt to Israel's offensive, signaling the likely failure of Rice's efforts to win support for the deployment of an international force in southern Lebanon, which has borne the brunt of the offensive.

"In the wake of the tragedy that the people and the government of Lebanon are dealing with today, I have decided to postpone my discussion in Beirut," Rice said.

Ya Libnan: Qana Massacre 2006 in Pictures

Sources: AP, BBC, Reuters, Naharnet