JERUSALEM - Israel scrapped plans Wednesday to build a wall between the two halves of a divided village it occupies on the border with Lebanon and Syria, public radio reported.

The decision was made during talks among officials from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office, the defence minister and the army, said the radio.

The officials had been considering a plan to build the wall in the village of Ghajar in a bid to prevent infiltrations by the Shiite militia Hezbollah.

Ghajar was the scene of fierce fighting in late November when three members of Hezbollah were killed after they launched an attack on Israeli troops in the village, in an apparent bid to kidnap soldiers.

Israeli jets subsequently fired missiles on three suspected Hezbollah positions, one on the outskirts of Ghajar.

The village, at the foot of Mount Hermon straddling the Lebanese-Syrian border, is perched on a cliff overlooking the precious Wazzani spring, which has been a source of continuous disputes between Israel and Lebanon.

It is inhabited mainly by Alawites, most of whom have obtained Israeli citizenship even though they consider themselves Syrian.

The village is an extension of the Syrian Golan Heights plateau, which Israel occupied during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and then annexed in 1981.

According to a UN-drawn "blue line" marking the border between Israel and Lebanon following the May 2000 Israeli troop pullout, two thirds of the village is on Lebanese soil, while the other third is part of occupied Syrian territory.

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