TYRE, Jan 20: Israeli warplanes bombarded Hezbollah bases deep inside southern Lebanon on Tuesday after a deadly attack by the Shia militia in the volatile border region.

Israel had warned it would retaliate after one soldier was killed and another wounded on Monday when a Hezbollah rocket hit an Israeli bulldozer which the United Nations said had "violated" Lebanese territory.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell blamed Hezbollah's initial attack for the Israeli riposte and urged Syria to cease all support for the group. It was the worst flare-up of violence in the region since Israel raided in October an alleged Palestinian base in Syria, its first on Syrian soil in three decades.

Israeli government spokesman Avi Pazner said the raids should be "considered a warning to Hezbollah, which should understand it cannot continue its attacks with impunity, and to Syria, which supports it while talking of peace."

Hezbollah MP Mohamad Fneish warned that the group's guerillas were ready to respond to any Israeli escalation and that any strike on Syria would be considered an attack on Lebanon.

"We cannot accept any aggression against Lebanese soil and we will confront any aggression," he told state television. "Any development in the region towards an aggression against Syria will be dealt with accordingly. The common interests of Lebanon and Syria cannot be separated."

Cross-border violence has erupted on many occasions since Israel ended its 22-year occupation of south Lebanon in May 2000, although most incidents have been in a disputed area known as Shebaa Farms on the Israeli-Lebanon-Syria border.

"I think it's unfortunate that Hezbollah once again has caused this need for a response," Mr Powell said, describing Syrian support for the movement as "destabilizing in the region and not in the interest of peace".

Mr Powell urged Israel and Lebanon not to allow the current tension to boil over and called on each to respect the UN- monitored boundary line between them and "monitor their actions carefully."

The Hezbollah attack followed an upsurge in activity by Israeli warplanes over Lebanon after the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon appeared to rebuff peace overtures by Damascus.

Mr Sharon warned on Monday that any resumption of talks with Syria would ultimately force a pullout from the Golan Heights, a Syrian plateau occupied by Israel since 1967.

A Hezbollah spokesman told AFP the targeted sites were abandoned former bases that the Israeli army and UN peacekeepers had used before the 2000 Israeli troop pullout.-AFP