Jesse Jackson, Annan In Mideast

The families of three Israeli soldiers captured by Islamic militants said that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan promised them he would work to secure the release of the men.

Annan was visiting Israel Tuesday as part of an 11-day trip through the Middle East to try to shore up the fragile cease-fire that ended 34-days of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon. The fighting started after Hezbollah fighters attacked an Israeli army patrol July 12, killing three soldiers and capturing two others.

Wednesday morning, Annan met in Jerusalem with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and afterwards both diplomats said they hope the current Mideast cease-fire which ended 34 days of Israeli-Hezbollah warfare will evolve into a full peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon.

"I promise we will stick with it and do whatever we can to make it happen," said Annan.

There was good news Wednesday for civilians in Lebanon whose homes were ravaged by bombs. The Lebanese government now says it will pay $33,000 per house to compensate Lebanese whose homes were destroyed by Israeli attacks.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said 130,000 housing units had been destroyed or damaged in more than a month of Israeli airstrikes and ground fighting with Hezbollah guerrillas, mostly in south Lebanon.

Also Wednesday, the European Commission announced it will pledge euro42 million (US$54 million) at Thursday's conference in Stockholm to raise money to rebuild Lebanon.

The money will be in addition to the euro50 million (US$64 million) that the European Union's head office has already earmarked for emergency relief to Lebanon.

Annan met Tuesday night with the relatives of the captured Israeli soldiers - Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev - as well as the family of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was captured June 25 when Hamas-allied militants from Gaza attacked an Israeli army post. That attack sparked Israel's ongoing offensive in the Gaza Strip.

None of the soldiers have been heard from since being captured.

Goldwasser's wife, Karnit, said after meeting with Annan that he gave them no new news about the fate of their loved ones.

"He promised us a private promise that he will do everything he can to bring them back and we asked for not just a promise but also to start to act and to bring them back," she said. "We are pleased to hear what he said and we ask him now to start to work and to do action to bring all the three soldiers back."

The relatives said they had heard lip service from many international officials about efforts to get their relatives freed.

"We asked him to be the one to start turning words into deeds and bring about their return home, all three," Karnit Goldwasser told Israel TV. "He spoke to Lebanese Cabinet ministers from Hezbollah and asked them to help him."

Her father, Omri Avni, pleaded for the members of the Security Council, who passed the cease-fire resolution to also exert efforts to free the soldiers. "If negotiations are needed. Let's do it," he said, adding that Annan told them there were no negotiations about the release of the captured soldiers underway.

The families of the three men also appealed for word on the soldier's conditions.

"They must first of all give us a sign of life. (Annan) must act toward that. It's a moral demand that's basic in any negotiations," Regev's brother Benny said before the meeting.

They also wanted Annan to back down from his demands that Israel lift its blockade of Lebanon, for fear that an end to the siege would allow Hezbollah to move its captives out of Lebanon.

Saniora said Wednesday he believes the Israeli air and sea blockade could be lifted "in the next few days."

Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman said the meeting between Annan and the families carried important symbolism.

"I hope that he will leave here with a real feeling of obligation, of a moral mission to do everything he can - and he is going to several capitals in which there is influence on this matter - to bring about Udi, Eldad and Gilad's speedy return home," Gillerman told Israel TV.

Meanwhile, veteran civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson, speaking in Beirut, said he was told that the three soldiers were alive during his meetings with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Khaled Mashaal, political leader of Hamas, in Damascus.

"The Hamas leadership says that the soldier they are holding is alive and well," Jackson told reporters in Beirut, where he was meeting political and religious leaders.

"The president (Assad) believes that the two held somewhere by Hezbollah are alive," he added.

Syria and Iran are the main backers of Hezbollah.

"Obviously under any kind of international law, we should have been given a sign of life immediately. But these are terrorists," Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisen said. "Though we'd like to believe them, we continue to demand the unconditional release of all three."

Israel has ruled out negotiations or a prisoner swap to secure the men's release, but Goldwasser's mother, Miki, said she would be open to talks and a prisoner exchange.