A three-member team sent by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to defuse the Middle East crisis arrived in the Egyptian capital of Cairo late Friday.

The three men were Annan's special political advisor Vijay Nambiar, the UN envoy to the Middle East Alvaro de Soto and special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen.

They are expected to meet Egyptian officials and consult with Arab foreign ministers, who will convene an emergency meeting in Cairo on Saturday.

Annan sought to use the team's visit to urge all parties to do everything possible to contain the situation and to respect international and humanitarian laws for protecting civilians and their infrastructures, Maher Nasser, director of the UN's Information Center in Cairo, was quoted by Egypt's MENA news agency as saying.

The UN team will also travel to Israel, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

The Arab League Assistant Secretary-General for Palestinian Affairs Mohamed Sobeih said that Arab foreign ministers would "condemn Israeli aggressions" while supporting Lebanon and Palestine in their meeting.

UN URGES ALL SIDES TO COOPERATE WITH UN TEAM

The UN Security Council welcomed on Friday Annan's decision to send the team.

After an emergency meeting to discuss the escalating crisis in the Middle East, the 15-member council called on "all concerned states and parties to extend their full cooperation to the team."

The two-hour long council session was requested by the Lebanese government, with the focus on the escalating violence between Israel, Lebanon and the Palestinians.

MOUNTING TENSION IN MIDDLE EAST

Tensions in the Middle East have been dramatically heightened since Israel started a retaliatory military offensive against Lebanon on Wednesday after Lebanese Hezbollah fighters staged an incursion into Israeli territory, killing several soldiers and seizing two more.

Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday vowed to push a war deep inside Israel in a statement released by the group's al-Manar television.

"It will be war at all levels ... to Haifa and beyond Haifa," Nasrallah said in an audio message shortly after an Israeli air raid on his home and the group's headquarters.

"You want an open war, you will get an open war," he said.

He also claimed that Hezbollah had destroyed an Israeli warship off the coast of Beirut.

The vessel was sinking, said Lebanese ANB television, while Lebanese security sources said the warship was hit by two rockets.

But in Jerusalem, an Israeli army spokeswoman said the boat, although attacked, did not sink. Later the Israeli side said four soldiers were missing after the attack.

Israel's attack on Nasrallah's home and Hezbollah's headquarters was the third Israeli airstrike on the same area on Friday.

There is no immediate report on casualties.

Moments ago, Israeli aircraft fired a missile at the al-Nour radio station run by Hezbollah in Haret Hreik, but the missile missed the target and hit a nearby residential building.

The number of casualties was not known so far.

On Friday morning, Israeli warplanes pounded the same area, leaving three people dead and dozens of others wounded.

Israeli aircraft attacked a Palestinian government office and a bridge in the central Gaza Strip in separate airstrikes early Saturday, Palestinian officials said.

Source: Xinhua