RMAILEH, Lebanon - Two Irish military officers serving with the UN contingent in Lebanon were wounded in a roadside bombing Tuesday targeting their vehicle, UN and security officials told AFP.

The officers were hurt in the explosion which damaged their UNIFIL vehicle on the coastal highway near the southern Lebanese town of Saida, the force said.

"Two military members of UNIFIL who were inside the vehicle suffered minor injuries from broken glass and were transported to a hospital in Saida where their condition is reported to be stable," Yasmina Bouziane, spokeswoman for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon told AFP.

A senior security official identified the two officers as Irish.

The acting commander of the 13,000-strong international force, Brigadier General Jai Prakash Nehra, described the attack as a "despicable act" and hoped investigators would quickly identify those responsible.

"I see this attack as an attempt by the perpetrators to destabilise the situation and to undermine the joint efforts of the Lebanese Armed Forces and UNIFIL to bring stability and peace in southern Lebanon," he said.

Tuesday's blast marked the third such attack on UN peacekeepers since the force was boosted to more than 13,000 soldiers after the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

In the deadliest incident, three Spanish and three Colombian peacekeepers were killed on June 24 last year when a booby-trapped car exploded as their patrol vehicle passed by.

On July 16, a vehicle belonging to the Tanzanian contingent was damaged in a bomb blast in southern Lebanon, but there were no casualties.

The attack immediately drew condemnation from Lebanese authorities who described it as yet another terrorist attempt to destabilize the country.

"Prime Minister Fuad Siniora expressed his anger and condemned the terrorist crime that targeted an Irish UNIFIL patrol in the region of Rmaileh," a statement from his office said.

Parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri also denounced the bombing saying it "does not only target UNIFIL forces but it aims to scuttle the Lebanese people's security and stability and to maintain Lebanon as an open arena to the conflicts of others."

The attack comes amid high tension in Lebanon, which has been without a president since November 24, when the pro-Syrian Emile Lahood stepped down at the end of his mandate with pro- and anti-Western parliamentary factions bitterly divided over his successor.

It also comes after an ominous threat this week by the leader of an Al-Qaeda-inspired militia which fought a deadly 15-week battle with Lebanese troops last year.

"Our message to the crusaders is to expect the worst. This battle was only the beginning and we will prevail," said a message posted on an Islamic website attributed to Fatah al-Islam's Palestinian chief Shaker al-Abssi.

Almost 400 people were killed, including an estimated 222 militants and 168 soldiers, in the fighting at the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in northern Lebanon which ended in September after a final assault by the army.

Abssi's fate was unknown after the fighting ended although the Lebanese judiciary in October last year issued a warrant for his arrest and several dozen other fugitive militants.

The militia leader's wife had at one stage identified his body in a morgue although DNA tests subsequently determined it was not him. -AFP