YARMOUTH – As the United States stepped up diplomatic efforts Sunday to try to resolve the current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon, Sen. John McCain warned now is no time for a cease-fire. McCain’s remarks came during a Maine campaign stop here.

“We all want a cessation in the hostilities, but a cease-fire in place would only allow Hezbollah to stay in southern Lebanon and thereby continue to pose a threat to Israel,” McCain said. “Complete disarmament of Hezbollah and the reassertion of the Lebanese government’s control over Lebanon has to be a part this cease-fire.”

McCain was in Maine on Saturday to campaign with GOP gubernatorial nominee Chandler Woodcock at the Yarmouth Clam Festival. It was McCain’s second visit to Maine in as many months. The potential 2008 presidential candidate appeared at a fundraiser for former Maine GOP gubernatorial primary candidate David Emery on May 21. When asked by a television reporter how he could switch his support to Woodcock after such a short period of time, McCain didn’t miss a beat.

“Well, first of all – he won,” McCain said, as Woodcock supporters broke into laughter.

Woodcock, who joked that it had taken some time to convince McCain to climb on board his campaign, appeared grateful for the endorsement from the Arizona Republican. McCain sometimes receives mixed reviews from conservative party members who don’t agree with his positions on some social issues or his desire to work with Beltway Democrats.

Woodcock and McCain share a common defining experience as Vietnam veterans, and both hold near-identical views on current abortion laws. During television interviews, McCain has said he believes that “rape, incest, and the life of the mother are legitimate exceptions” to an outright ban on abortions. He does not, however, share Woodcock’s opposition to gay marriage and broke with Senate leadership in 2004 in calling for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex unions on the basis that it usurped states’ rights.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left Sunday for talks with Mideast leaders, and McCain devoted the bulk of remarks Saturday to the fighting there. He blamed Syria and Iran for sponsoring terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas.

Responding to concerns over a widening of the conflict that could draw in the United States, McCain was confident Israel was capable of taking care of itself.

“I think the main threat is the Iranian nuclear buildup and that they are on the path to acquiring nuclear weapons,” he said. “This is very disturbing considering that the president of Iran came to the United Nations and announced his nation’s policy which was to exterminate the state of Israel. Those were his words, so it’s important that the U.S. goes to the U.N. Security Council and asks for sanctions on Iran because of their failure to abide by the nuclear proliferation treaty. We have to expect the Chinese and Russians to join us in that effort. So it’s very dangerous now.”

The Arizona senator also said he was “disappointed” in the European community’s desire for “proportionality” in the fighting and the perception that somehow both sides were equally responsible for the conflict. Likening the situation to an attack on the United States from forces operating in a neighboring country, McCain said Americans would react no differently.

“We would have a pretty severe response and would not tolerate a terrorist organization across our border,” he said.

Woodcock received high praise from McCain for his desire to lower taxes in the state and to try to create a more favorable business climate. Implying that Democratic policies were responsible for Maine’s reputation as one of the highest-taxed states in the country, McCain said a Woodcock administration definitely would place the state back on “the right track.”

“[Woodcock’s] going to relieve the tax burden on the citizens of Maine and thereby help them have better lives and encourage companies to locate here,” he said. “Companies and corporations have many choices, they can go anywhere in the world – much less in the USA. They’re not going to locate where the environment is not conducive to them. Chandler is a low-tax, less government regulation candidate, and, frankly, that policy has been very successful in many other parts of the country.”

Elsewhere in the state, independent gubernatorial candidate Barbara Merrill met supporters in Bridgton and Fryeburg while Green Independent Party nominee Patricia LaMarche joined Democratic Gov. John E. Baldacci at an anti-discrimination rally in Portland. The event was called in response to a vandalism incident in Poland that took place June 1 at the home of two lesbians.

Maine Democratic Party Chairman Ben Dudley of Portland chided Woodcock for attending the Yarmouth festival with McCain instead of the Portland rally.

“Why doesn’t Chandler Woodcock stand with us against the hate crimes we saw in the news last week?” he asked in a prepared statement. “Senator McCain believes that writing discrimination into the Constitution is wrong; what is Woodcock’s stance?”

Woodcock said the vandalism incident was “a despicable act” condoned by no one and that he supported the prosecution of those responsible “to the fullest extent of the law.” Emphasizing that he already had committed to the Yarmouth event before he was aware of the anti-discrimination rally, Woodcock said there was at least one more reason he wasn’t in Portland on Saturday.

“The governor didn’t give me an invitation,” he said.