Diplomats from the council's five permanent members - the US, China, Russia, Britain and France – are due to meet again later today after failing to agree whether to amend a draft a resolution to take account of Lebanon's concerns.
Lebanon has demanded a draft Security Council resolution drawn up by France and the United States to include a call for a quick withdrawal of Israeli troops from its soil.
That prevented Paris and Washington from putting the draft into final form - a move that would have cleared the way for a vote on a Security Council resolution today.
During the closed-door meeting, China and Russia argued in favour of making the resolution more attractive to Lebanon.
Lebanese officials say the existing draft, which does not demand an immediate ceasefire, can only lead to more conflict.
Arab foreign ministers are due to hold an emergency meeting in Beirut to back a seven-point Lebanese plan to put an end to hostilities with Israel.
The violence in the region is threatening to spiral even further out of control.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem warned on his arrival in Beirut that Damascus was ready for regional war.
Israel has said it has no plans to attack Syria but analysts have expressed fears of a wider conflict after Israel recently bombed Lebanese border posts close to Syria.
Israel has accused Syria and Iran of "stoking instability in the region."
"Hezbollah is making an enormous effort to increase Israeli losses, with the support of Syria and Iran, because it fears the UN resolution which is on the horizon," said Israeli government spokesman Avi Pazner.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought to ease Lebanese concerns.
"No one wants to see Israel permanently in Lebanon," she told reporters.
"Nobody wants to do that," Rice said. "The Israelis don't want it, the Lebanese don't want it, so I think there is a basis here for moving forward."
But she admitted that the resolution was no quick fix for the conflict.
"We're trying to deal with a problem that has been festering and brewing in Lebanon now for years and years and years, and so it's not going to be solved by one resolution in the Security Council," she said.
"I would hope that you would see very early on an end to the kind of large-scale violence, large-scale military operations. But I can't say that you should rule out that there could be skirmishes of some kind for some time to come."
There could be a full Security Council vote on the French-American resolution aimed at ending the conflict in the next few days but Israeli Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog said "the army will continue to act" until the resolution enters into force.
And Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres warned it would take weeks not days for the resolution to take effect on the ground.