UNITED NATIONS — As the Security Council prepared to launch new diplomatic initiatives on the war across the Israeli-Lebanese border, American Ambassador John Bolton yesterday vowed he would not be “distracted” by shelving negotiations to defuse Iran’s nuclear threat.

France yesterday circulated ideas on the Lebanon war. While United Nations officials urged that there be a “cessation of hostilities” before anything else took place, America and Britain stressed the need first to disarm Hezbollah.

The Security Council is scheduled to meet today and hear a report by Secretary-General Annan on the diplomatic efforts of his three envoys in the region. Mr. Annan will later meet Secretary of State Rice and the European Union’s Javier Solana, as Ms. Rice prepares to visit the region, perhaps as soon as this weekend.

One stop Ms. Rice is not expected to make is Syria, “because its track record stinks,” the White House spokesman, Tony Snow, said. Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar al-Jaafari, yesterday accused America and Israel of committing “genocide” in Lebanon.

As first reported in The New York Sun yesterday, the U.N. team, headed by Mr. Annan’s political adviser, Vijay Nambiar, canceled a visit to Syria because President Assad refused to receive one of its members, Terje Roed-Larsen. The U.N. deputy secretary-general, Mark Malloch Brown, said yesterday that even after the slight to his envoys, Mr. Annan telephoned Mr. Assad. The secretary-general “will want a team to visit Damascus,” Mr. Malloch Brown said.

“It would be unfortunate if in fact it turns out that Syria tried to block one member of that mission or if the U.N. has acquiesced at any point,” Mr. Bolton said.

After Mr. Jaafari yesterday confirmed the Sun report, Mr. Malloch Brown said a decision will have to be made “what to do about Roed-Larsen,” indicating that the composition of the team might have to be changed.

Meanwhile, ambassadors of the five most powerful Security Council members met yesterday on the Iranian nuclear issue, in an attempt to coalesce around a resolution based on agreements achieved last week in Paris by the G-8 world economic powers.

Although some divisions remained, Mr. Bolton said he was pushing the council to quickly agree on a tough resolution that would make Iranian suspension of uranium enrichment “mandatory.”

“The Iranian trick worked,” Prime Minister Olmert complained Tuesday. The timing of Hezbollah’s attack “was not a coincidence,” he told Israeli diplomats, according to press reports.”It fits with the Iranian [need] to turn the world’s attention away.” As a result, he said,”everyone remembers the G-8 decisions on Lebanon, but no one remembers the Iranian issue.”

When asked about the possible connection, Mr. Bolton told the Sun, “My instructions remain to get this resolution [on Iran] passed as soon as possible, this week if possible. So if that was the Iranian intention, I don’t intend to be delayed by it.”

While the discussions on Iran are taking place behind closed doors, the council’s meeting on Lebanon will be the focus of attention today. Mr. Annan is expected to urge an immediate end to hostilities, Mr. Malloch Brown said.

“Step one is to try and stop this violence against civilians,” he told reporters. Only after “cessation of hostilities” is achieved, should negotiations begin “to tackle the root causes of this problem,” he said. Implementation of Security Council resolution 1559, which demands the disarming of all Lebanese militias and the deployment of Lebanon’s army all over the country, is but “one” of the “root causes,” he said.

Mr. Bolton disagreed that a cease-fire must come first. “The notion that you just declare a cease-fire and act as if that is going to solve the problem I think is simplistic,” he said. “I want someone to address the problem with how you get a cease-fire with a terrorist organization.”

Mr. Olmert told the Knesset earlier this week that Israel will not end military operations in Lebanon before several conditions, including the disarming of Hezbollah, are met. Last week’s G-8 resolution in Paris did not call for a cease-fire as a first step. The French ideas, circulated yesterday to council members, included a call for a “comprehensive and lasting cease-fire.”

American and British diplomats accepted most of the ideas, which also included a call for a release of Israel’s abducted soldiers and implementation of all relevant resolutions. But they added they would oppose any “sequencing” that would demand a cease-fire first. “There is no sequencing” in the French proposals, French Ambassador Jean Marc de la Sabliere told the Sun.