"America has no interest in seeing any early resolution to this conflict and that makes us guilty by association," Sheridan said.

LONDON — A British minister and lifelong Labour and union activist has quit his post at the Ministry of Defense in protest at Prime Minister's Tony Blair's stance on the four-week Israeli war on Lebanon amid increasing demands to recall parliament from summer recess to discuss the offensive.

"The reason I am resigning is the current conflict in the Middle East and once again the Palestinian situation has been put on the back-burner," Jim Sheridan, the parliamentary private secretary to the defense minister and his deputy, told Sky News television on Wednesday, August 9.

"I am a friend of the Prime Minister... sometimes it takes a friend to tell you to stand back from where you are and reconsider your position."

Sheridan said he was resentful at Blair's refusal to call for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and his support to Washington's pro-Israel line, said The Independent.

"America has no interest in seeing any early resolution to this conflict and that makes us guilty by association."

More than 1,032 Lebanese civilians, a third of whom were children, have been killed since Israel launched a large-scale offensive in Lebanon on July 12.

The entire international community, except for Washington and London, is calling for an immediate ceasefire.

"We need to be using our influence to knock heads together to bring this to an end sooner rather than later," Sheridan said.

He charged that Blair's foreign policy failed to reflect "core Labour values or indeed the country".

"I think that the British have a major influence to play - especially in the Middle East. I am concerned by the special relationship that we have with the US," he said.

A wide-ranging survey showed on Tuesday, July 24, that the large majority of Britons opposes the Blair-Bush political marriage and wants a divorce and independence from the US.

Parliament Recall

The resignation came on the same day that more than 150 MPs, including former ministers from the Labour, signed a letter to the Commons leader Jack Straw requesting Parliament be recalled from its 11-week summer recess to discuss the Lebanon war.

In a letter to Jack Straw, the cabinet minister in charge of the government's legislative agenda, they said that it was "absolutely vital" that public concern over the conflict be fully discussed.

"There is huge concern in the country about the current Middle East crisis, and fear that the early failure to insist that Israel and Hizbullah observe an immediate ceasefire has cost many innocent lives and may continue to do so," read the letter.

"It should be noted that 202 cross-party members of parliament have signed a petition calling for an immediate ceasefire," added the letter.

Straw said two weeks ago that Israel's action had been disproportionate but has since been silent on the issue.

The MPs said that the issue of US flights carrying arms to Israel also needs to be discussed.

"In addition, the use by US supply aircraft to refuel at Prestwick airport when transporting bombs and military hardware to be used by the Israel defense force in air-raids on densely populated civilian areas has given the impression that the UK has assumed a tacitly active ... role in the conflict."

Last July, two US aircraft carrying bunker-busting bombs bounded to Israel landed at Prestwick airport in Scotland.