WASHINGTON: The Bush administration is increasingly concerned about a possible second front in the Middle East conflict opening along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. In the latest of a series of exchanges over the past two weeks, Israel launched airstrikes on Tuesday against a southern Lebanese village in response to Hezbollah rocket attacks on a disputed frontier area.

In an unusually direct and high-level diplomatic warning, Vice President Cheney telephoned Syrian President Bashar Assad on Monday to say that the border situation could spiral out of control in the region’s current volatile atmosphere and undermine already-fragile US peace efforts, an administration source said.

Syria has denied that either it or Lebanon is interested in opening a second front and has charged Israel with “provocations” and airspace violations.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, who spoke on Tuesday of appeals sent to Syria but did not mention Cheney’s call, said that Syria was taking the message seriously.

In Madrid for a meeting with European, UN and Russian officials before heading to Israel on Thursday, Powell said US officials have also told Iran to keep the Lebanese Hezbollah from opening a new northern front against Israel, but did not say whether Iran was heeding the message.

In addition to its strong influence inside Lebanon, Syria allegedly provides transit for Hezbollah guerrillas and for weapons the United States and Israel have charged come from Iran.

An eruption of full-scale fighting along the border, a principal focus of the Israeli-Arab conflict throughout the 1980s and 1990s, would further complicate the efforts of President Bush and Powell to enlist Arab support in bringing the Palestinians to the negotiating table. In its current aggrieved and aggressive frame of mind, Israel is even less likely to agree to political talks with the Palestinians while it feels attacked by their fellow Arabs.

What is actually happening in the border region is far from clear. Extended fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which is active in the Lebanese government in addition to fielding a guerrilla force in southern Lebanon, ceased after Israel ended its 22-year occupation of the southern part of the country in May 2000.

Sporadic Hezbollah shelling into the contested Shebaa Farms near the area where Lebanon, Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights meet has continued, however. Syria supports Lebanon’s claim to the Shebaa Farms, although Israel, which maintains a troop presence there, says it is part of the Golan Heights seized from Syria in 1967. —Dawn/The Washington Post News Service.