BEIRUT, April 15: US Secretary of State Colin Powell had a warning on “aggressive actions” from southern Lebanon rejected on Monday by the Lebanese president.

After meeting President Emile Lahoud upon his arrival here, Powell said “there is a very real danger of the situation along the border widening the conflict throughout the region”.

“It is essential for all of us who are committed to peace to act immediately to stop aggressive actions along the entire border,” said Powell, the first secretary of state to visit Lebanon since Madeleine Albright’s trip in 1999.

“The United States remains concerned about continuing violence across the Blue Line” drawn by the United Nations to mark the border after Israel’s troop pullout from southern Lebanon in May 2000.

Hezbollah guerillas are still fighting Israeli troops holding the Shebaa Farms area seized from Syria in 1967.

In his talks with Powell, Lahoud called on Washington “to look at the situation with objectivity and realism, and not to be affected by Israelis who present the Lebanese resistance in Shebaa Farms as terrorist acts”.

There was no hint of an end to the attacks, which have escalated since Israel mounted its invasion of the West Bank on March 29.

In addition hardline Palestinian groups, which Lebanon says it does not support and is trying to curb, have fired rockets across the border into northern Israel.

The Lebanese foreign minister said President Lahoud told Secretary Powells that “Israel bears the complete responsibility for the ongoing deterioration”, adding that the Jewish state had not complied with UN resolutions to withdraw its troops from occupied territories.

Both Lahoud and Powell recalled the Arab summit in Beirut last month, which offered Israel normal relations with Arab states in return for its withdrawal from all occupied lands and an agreed solution for the problem of Palestinian refugees.

Powell arrived to an angry demonstration by various religious and leftist groups, who had gathered outside the airport, shouting: “Death to America, Death to Israel.”

US CREDIBILITY: Saudi Arabia warned the United States on Monday that its credibility was at stake for not pressing Israel to withdraw from Palestinian land immediately.