Defence Minister Ehud Barak was looking favourably at the proposal for a brief ceasefire, his spokesman said, stressing however that this would not prevent Israel from preparing for a possible ground offensive.

Israeli officials warned that the onslaught, which has killed at least 373 Palestinians, could continue for weeks, while Hamas militants fired more deadly rockets and threatened to step up their attacks on Israel.

"We tell the leaders of the enemy -- if you continue with your assault, we will hit with our rockets further than the cities we have hit so far," a masked spokesman for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas armed wing, said in televised comments.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday evening discussed with his foreign and defence ministers the French proposal for a 48-hour truce.

And US President George W. Bush spoke with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to discuss a "sustainable ceasefire."

"They agreed that for any ceasefire to be effective, it must be respected, particularly by Hamas," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters in Crawford, Texas.

The European Union separately called for a "permanent" ceasefire in and around the Gaza Strip, while the Middle East Quartet called for "an immediate ceasefire that would be fully respected."

But throughout the day, Israeli officials insisted the armed forces would press on with the offensive, which has sparked Muslim outrage and protests worldwide.

"What we want is not a ceasefire but a stop to terrorism," said President Shimon Peres.

Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer warned a ceasefire would allow Hamas "to regain strength, recover from the shock and prepare an even stronger attack against Israel."

"There is no reason that we would accept a ceasefire at this stage," he told AFP.

With tanks and troops massed on the Gaza border, the Israeli military said ground forces are ready to join what politicians have warned would be a prolonged offensive.

Olmert said the bombardment so far was "the first of several stages approved by the security cabinet," while deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai warned the offensive -- one of Israel's deadliest against Gaza -- could turn into "weeks of combat."

World leaders have expressed serious concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, a tiny, aid-dependent territory of 1.5 million which Israel has virtually sealed off since Hamas seized power in June last year.

Israel opened one of its crossings into Gaza for a third consecutive day on Tuesday, the defence ministry said, adding that a total of 179 truckloads of humanitarian supplies and 10 ambulances were delivered since the start of the military offensive.

Warplanes, meanwhile blew up dozens of tunnels along Gaza's border with Egypt, which Hamas used to smuggle weapons and bring in "terror activists," a military spokesman said in a statement. "These tunnels play a major role in supplying Hamas with the means of strengthening its ability to carry out terror," the statement said.

It said 30 additional targets were attacked on Tuesday, including rocket launchers, weapons manufacturing facilities and "armed terror operatives."

Four days of intensive bombardment have killed several senior Hamas officials and reduced much of the Islamist movement's infrastructure in Gaza to rubble, but have failed to stop rocket fire.

Three Israelis -- two civilians and one soldier -- were killed on Monday by rockets fired from Gaza, with one slamming into the southern port city of Ashdod more than 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the border.

Hamas has threatened to carry out suicide attacks inside Israel for the first time since January 2005.

Since the massive aerial attack was unleashed on Saturday, at least 373 Palestinians, including 39 children, have been killed and 1,720 wounded, Gaza medics say.

Palestinian militants have also fired more than 250 rockets and mortar shells, killing four people inside Israel and wounding around two dozen more.

Israel's offensive followed days of rising violence after a tenuous six-month truce in and around Gaza ended on December 19. It also comes ahead of early parliamentary elections in Israel called for February 10.

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