Despite fires sweeping hills around the northern city of Haifa for a fourth day, hopes were high that the arrival in Israel of the chartered Boeing Supertanker would finally tip the balance.

The Israeli military said that the plane's US crew had been joined by two Israeli air force pilots and a base commander, acting as liaison.

Police appealed to residents in the target area to stay indoors and shut their windows as the behemoth dropped its payload of 76,000 litres (20,500 gallons) of water and flame retardant.

Israeli fire service operations officer Boaz Rakia was cautiously upbeat.

"We wake up this morning to a slightly more optimistic morning," he told army radio.

"It's true that there are a number of sites where the fire is still active and we are concentrating our efforts there, but generally speaking if you look at the whole area of operations, it's better, more optimistic."

The fire has so far ravaged at least 5,000 hectares (12,000 acres) of land and five million trees in the pine-covered hills known locally as "little Switzerland."

Meteorologists say rain is expected on Sunday night or Monday.

Israeli ministers switched the venue of their weekly cabinet meeting to the Haifa suburb of Tirat Hacarmel, where some residents have been evacuated from the path of the flames.

They opened the session with a minute's silence for victims of the fire.

"We shall devote the cabinet meeting here in Tirat Hacarmel not just as an act of solidarity but also in order to make it clear that we will rehabilitate not only the people who have been injured but the homes and the forests that have been damaged as well," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a news conference in Haifa.

The fire, centred on the Carmel hills, south and east of the city, is the biggest inferno in Israel's 62-year history. So far, it has taken 41 lives and forced more than 17,000 people to flee their homes.

Police have arrested two youths from the Druze Israeli village of Isfiya on suspicion of starting the fire "through negligence" by leaving behind burning embers after a family picnic.

More than 30 firefighting aircraft were flying sorties over the forest and scrub early on Sunday, Israeli media reported.

The military said aircraft from Greece, Britain, Turkey, Russia and France were already in action. Switzerland, the Netherlands, Azerbaijan and Romania were due fly in assistance on Sunday.

Bulgaria, Jordan and the Palestinians sent personnel to join ground operations.

France's ambassador to Israel, Christophe Bigot, said his country had sent five of its 10 aerial firefighting units to join the international effort.

"We've organised a major assistance in the form of half of the French fleet of firefighters, who are are now working with the Turks, with the Greeks, with the Russians," he told army radio, in English.

Bigot said the aircraft were not needed at home with the onset of fierce winter weather in northern Europe. "They were, of course out of a job, because it's snow in France, there's no fire to fight."

Alexey Skantsev, liaison officer for a Russian team of 50 manning three aircraft, said his men had been on the scene for the past two days and would stay until the danger had passed.

"We're going to be in Israel until the fires are under control," he told AFP at the forward command centre on the edge of the fire zone, as planes roared overhead.

"It's very hard to say when they will bring it under control, they are still working," he said.

"We spoke with the local ops centre and, according to the information we received from them, the scale of the fire is now being reduced."

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