UNITED NATIONS — America and France were on the verge of an agreement on an immediate cessation of diplomatic hostilities between them, Turtle Bay diplomats said yesterday. A joint draft of a Security Council resolution on Lebanon will be circulated as early as today, they added, leading to a foreign ministers’ summit as early as Monday.

As Israel intensified its war on Hezbollah, and as Hezbollah lobbed a record number of rockets on Israel yesterday, French, American, British, and U.N. officials said Paris and Washington were close to an agreement on a text for a resolution, or perhaps two resolutions, that would chart the next steps of the international involvement in Lebanon’s path to complete independence.

A U.N.-based diplomat involved in the intense French-American negotiations and bickering in the last few days acknowledged, however, that U.N. diplomacy might not take into account all the fast-moving changes and perceptions of events in Israel, or of Hezbollah.

“We might have to take the situation on the ground into account at some point,” the diplomat told The New York Sun, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A French proposal for a resolution that circulated last weekend called for an “immediate cessation of hostilities” as a first step. America, however, contended that a cease-fire will not last unless political arrangements are reached first.

“I don’t think that a cease-fire without more is sufficient to lead to a fundamental change in the situation in the region,” Ambassador John Bolton told U.N. reporters yesterday. “If you declare an immediate cease-fire and you do not have the conditions for real peace, it is simply going to be a hollow declaration,” a White House spokesman, Tony Snow, added.

But while France and America yesterday still had “differences in approach to the nature of the cessation of hostilities and how to make it permanent,” Mr. Bolton said, “there is near complete agreement on the fundamental political framework that has to be put in place.”

“We are almost there,” a French diplomat told the Sun.

In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Olmert discounted an end to Israel’s military action before an international force is deployed to verify and maintain the disarming of Hezbollah. “Ultimately it all depends on how fast the U.N. will adopt resolutions,” he said. “Israel will stop fighting when the international force”is deployed in south Lebanon. “We can’t stop before it.”

However, a Turtle Bay conference of potential contributors to an international force scheduled for today was canceled, a U.N. spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi announced yesterday. “It is clear that it remains premature for such a meeting to be held because of the absence of an agreed political framework for ending the conflict,” he said.

Nevertheless, diplomats involved in the talks said yesterday that Mr. Bolton and his French counterpart, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere — as well as their foreign ministers — have closed much of the gap between them, which mostly revolved around “sequencing,” they said. America wanted the mandate of the force to be in place first, while France demanded that cessation of hostilities would precede it.

To the original French text America added new proposals meant to “reaffirm” the demand to disarm Hezbollah, including international patrols along the Syrian border to assure that it does not rearm.”Hezbollah has to give up being an armed force, a force that carries out terrorist action,” Mr. Bolton said.

As of yet only a few countries have agreed to join the proposed force. Two hundred Marines and French troops who participated in a similar force in 1983 were killed as Hezbollah trucks rigged with explosives hit their barracks. Yesterday Belgium joined France, Italy, Germany, Ireland, and Turkey who so far have tentatively agreed to send troops. All, however, said a final decision would depend on the mandate of the force.

One idea discussed in the last few days was to first deploy a small “rapid reaction force” that would ensure that the sides stick to an agreed end to the shooting, as spelled in a council resolution. Only later, after a more encompassing arrangement is reached and detailed in a second resolution, would a larger force be deployed.

After realizing that no countries have yet volunteered to participate in the first-phase force, diplomats yesterday began speaking of a “more robust UNIFIL,” which would entail beefing up the blue-helmet force currently on the ground. It was not clear, however, whether there were any countries ready to agree to that task either.

While the Lebanese acting foreign minister, Tarek Mitri, said Beirut would agree only to a U.N. force, Israel has been skeptical of UNIFIL for years.”To bring here another UNIFIL, which would act like a traffic cop, directing Hezbollah to rearm — we can’t agree to that,” Defense Minister Amir Peretz said yesterday in Jerusalem.

Israel’s current widening ground assault, Mr. Peretz added, will prepare the ground for a more effective international force, which would assure the disarming of Hezbollah and enable Israeli troops to leave Lebanon quickly. Mr. Peretz then indicated he was also aware that the clock on the military operation was ticking. “Each hour of activity is an hour that will decide the future of this region for years to come,” he said.