New York, New York - President Joe Biden used his farewell address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday to insist that "full-scale war" between Israel and Lebanon can still be avoided through diplomacy.

"Full-scale war is not in anyone's interest. Even though the situation has escalated, a diplomatic solution is still possible," Biden said of the catastrophic escalation in which over 500 Lebanese people have already been killed by Israeli airstrikes.

"In fact (it) remains the only path to lasting security to allow the residents from both countries to return to their homes on the border safely."

Biden spoke again about an elusive ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, telling the global body it was time to "end this war (on Gaza)."

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The Democrat's administration has been the key military and diplomatic enabler of Israel's assaults on both Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, where warnings of a potential genocide have reached a deafening pitch.

UN Security Council member France called for an emergency meeting on the crisis, as the EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell warned "we are almost in a full-fledged war."

"We should all be alarmed by the escalation. Lebanon is at the brink," UN Secretary-General António Guterres said.

President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran – which backs both Hezbollah and Hamas – condemned the "senseless and incomprehensible" inaction by the UN against Israel.

A senior US official said ahead of Biden's speech that "concrete" ideas for de-escalation in Lebanon would be presented at the UN, but there was very little detail to be heard.

In jarring contrast to his own refusal to stop supplying Israel with billions worth of weapons, Biden did however demand the end of arms shipments to the warring parties of Sudan's civil war.

"The world needs to stop arming the generals," he said, "to speak with one voice and tell them, stop tearing your country apart, stop blocking aid to the Sudanese people, end this war now."

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Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group think tank said he expected many leaders to "warn that the UN will become irrelevant globally if it cannot help make peace."

With Israel's leader Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas expected to address the General Assembly this week, there could be combustible moments.

Abbas took his seat alongside the Palestinian delegation in alphabetical order for the first time after the delegation received upgraded privileges in the assembly in May.

On Tuesday, representatives of Turkey, Jordan, Qatar, Iran, and Algeria are all slated to take the podium to press for a Gaza ceasefire after nearly one year of Israeli destruction.

"The level of impunity in the world is politically indefensible and morally intolerable," Guterres said in his speech to the General Assembly, adding that "a growing number of governments and others feel entitled to a 'get out of jail free' card."