Sources to As-Safir newspaper describing themselves as close to Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said the prime minister supported the Shiite resistance movement "including Scud missiles, to defend Lebanese borders against any Israeli aggression attempt in Lebanon."

A statement from Hariri's office delivered to the English-language Lebanese newspaper described the quote as baseless.

"While it is true that Prime Minister Hariri is concerned first and foremost with Lebanon's interests, the quotes attributed to him in As-Safir are in total contradiction with such interests, because they are designed to draw Lebanon into dangerous regional tensions," the statement read.

Israeli intelligence officials said last week that Syria had "regularly" transferred long-range Scud missiles to Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.

Washington, for its part, said the transfer of long-range missiles to "terrorists (Hezbollah)" posed a serious threat to Israel.

But Neeraj Singh, a spokesman for the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, said peacekeepers in the south of Lebanon haven't confirmed the allegations.

"We have said that UNIFIL has not observed any Scud missiles and we have no evidence of any Scud missiles in our area of operations," he told United Press International in response to e-mail questions last week. -UPI