France and the United States have been wrangling for several days over the wording of a text on the conflict and there were hopes that a vote on a new resolution could be held on Friday.
Overnight UN diplomats were redrafting a resolution to end hostilities in Lebanon and Secretary General KofI Annan had called on the UN Security Council members to pass a resolution by the end of the week.
Mr Annan also reiterated a "call that the fighting must stop to save civilians on both sides from the nightmare they have endured in the past four weeks," said the UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he believed an agreement on a United Nations resolution for the conflict in Lebanon could be reached within the next 24 hours, a Downing Street source said.
Mr Blair has spoken to several world leaders, including UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, French President Jacques Chirac and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy also seemed hopeful that a resolution would soon be reached, saying a deal on a draft UN resolution was imminent.
"We are expecting an agreement in New York from one moment to the next," he told a press conference. "Every hour counts."
Mr Douste-Blazy said that the primary concern for Paris remained the cessation of violence, which would allow the "progressive withdrawal of the Israeli army" back to the Lebanese border.
The American ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, was quoted as saying progress is being made.
The United States and Israel want Israeli troops to remain in southern Lebanon until an international force arrives, fearing that Hezbollah could retake control of the border zone.
France had wanted a resolution to incorporate Lebanese demands that Israeli troops leave as soon as fighting stops, but on Wednesday it proposed that Israel be allowed to carry out a phased withdrawal.
Israel had delayed its planned expansion of its ground offensive into southern Lebanon saying it would give diplomats at the United Nations a chance to negotiate an end to the violence.
But Israel's defence minister warned that if diplomatic efforts failed to broker a ceasefire with Hezbollah, the military would launch a decisive ground invasion of Lebanon.
The army is preparing with a buildup of troops and military hardware on the border but the Israeli government has put on hold plans for a major ground offensive of Lebanon.
Fighting continues
Eleven civilians were killed and nine wounded in dawn strikes by Israeli warplanes in northern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut, police sources said.
Israeli fighter bombers shot missiles at the bridge in the Akkar plain, near the border with Syria, and returned for a second strike when residents had gone onto the bridge to inspect the damage.
A third raid struck a village some 20 kilometers northeast of the northern city of Tripoli.
Israeli fighter-bombers also staged repeated attacks at dawn on Beirut's southern suburbs, strongholds of the Shiite militia group Hezbollah.
Israeli aircraft had dropped leaflets on Thursday warning remaining residents in the Shiite area to leave their homes as Israeli army planned to push forward towards the capital.
Beirut's southern suburbs are now in ruins after repeated air strikes since the conflict began on July 12.
Israeli warplanes also staged new attacks on the main road leading north to Syria and the highway linking the Bekaa valley to the Beirut-Damascus highway, police said.
In southern Lebanon Israeli warplanes attacked the road leading from the village of Saida to Tyre, which has been cut off from the rest of Lebanon since
Monday.
UN aid chief slams both sides
The United Nations humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, has harshly criticised both Israel and Hezbollah for the suffering their continued fighting is causing for civilians.
Mr Egeland says the fighting has made Lebanon one of the worst places in the world for humanitarian workers to gain access to those who most need their help.
Mr Egeland says repeated requests by UN agencies to deliver aid have gone unheard but he stresses the situation is urgent.
“We know there are tens of thousands of civilians virtually trapped in the crossfire. So there has to come a Security Council resolution today and it has to be able to bring a cessation of hostilities now,” Mr Egeland said.
Aid boost
A ship carrying Red Cross relief supplies is sailing from Cyprus to the
embattled southern Lebanese port city of Tyre after receiving a security clearance from Israeli forces.
Staff from the International Committee of the Red Cross are also helping civilians to evacuate from villages in southern Lebanon near Tyre following similar guarantees.
But Medical relief agency Medecins Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders) vows to defy Israeli ban on vehicle movements south of Lebanon's Litani river.
The Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim plans to visit Lebanon to deliver 2.5 tonnes of medicine for civilians caught up in
the conflict, the government said.
Brazil's chief diplomat is due to meet Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and Prime Eight Brazilian citizens have been killed since the attacks began one month ago.