Geneva, June 18 (IANS/DPA): UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk has warned of another major conflict in the Middle East.

"I am extremely worried about the escalating situation between Lebanon and Israel," Turk told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday.

Turk also called for the fighting to stop and for everything to be done "to avert a full-scale war".

There have been daily military confrontations between the Israeli army and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, as well as other groups in the border area between the countries, since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip more than eight months ago.

According to Turk, 401 people have already been killed in Lebanon and 25 people in Israel. Tens of thousands of people on both sides have been forced to leave their homes because of the conflict.

At the start of the Human Rights Council's summer session, which lasts several weeks, Turk also lamented the total of more than 120,000 injured and dead in the Gaza war and the worldwide increase in armed violence. "We urgently need to find the way back to peace," he said.