The 15-nation crisis talks in Rome on Wednesday failed to produce a call for an immediate ceasefire, adding support to the US position that there must first be a sustainable solution.
On board a plane taking her from Rome to the ASEAN regional forum with southeast Asian leaders in Malaysia, secretary Rice said there were several countries which did not call for an immediate ceasefire.
She said that failure to work towards a ceasefire that was sustainable would only cause future bloodshed.
"The fields of the Middle East are littered with broken ceasefires," she said. "Every time there is a broken ceasefire, people die and there is destruction and misery."
"Yes, we want to see a ceasefire urgently in this region. Let's create the conditions this time that will make this an end of violence."
"(The meeting) was a success because it identified the elements that would eventually make up a sustainable ceasefire," she said.
UN resolution 1559
She said there had been agreement that full implementation of United Nations resolution 1559 and the Taif Agreement that ended Lebanon's civil war in 1990 were the basis for a solution.
Both the resolution and the agreement call for the extention of the Lebanese government's sovereignty to the whole of the country and the disbanding of private militias such as Hezbollah.
Secretary Rice said there had also been agreement in Rome on the need for a multinational UN-mandated force for Lebanon.
"I want a ceasefire as much as anyone," she told reporters on her plane to Malaysia. I looked in Prime Minister Siniora's eyes ... and I know what this must be like for him.
"I talked to Prime Minster Olmert. They (the Israelis) have got a million people in bomb shelters."
Meanwhile Secretary Rice is facing anger from ASEAN nations over the deadly Israeli airstrike on a United Nations post in Lebanon on Tuesday that killed four UN observers including one from China.
Foreign ministers from the 10-nation group plus China, Japan and South Korea have expressed their deep concern over Israel's "apparently deliberate targeting" of the UN post.
The ministers have said they would raise the attack, and their calls for an immediate ceasefire, with secretary Rice at Friday's ASEAN Regional Forum.
In other developments: