KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — With more than a dozen Asian nations expressing concern for escalating violence along the Lebanon-Israel border, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today she is willing to return to the Middle East while at the same time defending the U.S. insistence on holding out for a cease-fire that addresses deep-seated conflicts in the region.

Attending the annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Rice declared she is "willing and ready to go back to the Middle East at any time" to work for a sustainable peace plan and to smooth the delivery of humanitarian supplies to the people of Lebanon

Even as Rice and representatives of the nations attending the conference were preoccupied with what is happening in the Middle East, they also faced another festering diplomatic problem with North Korea's determination to develop a nuclear weapons program.

Before flying to Malaysia for the long-scheduled ASEAN regional forum, Rice spent three days traveling to Beirut, Jerusalem, the West Bank and Rome, trying to convince world leaders that the Bush administration's insistence that a cease-fire on the Lebanon-Israeli border must come with terms to ensure the violence doesn't flare weeks or months later.

The position isolated her from nearly all U.S. allies, who are seeking a quick end to the fighting that has cost millions of dollars and hundreds of lives.

"Yes, we want a cease-fire urgently," Rice said. "But let's create the conditions for a cease-fire, and create them quickly and urgently that will make the end of violence finally last."