JERUSALEM - Lebanon's pro-Syrian president shook hands with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom earlier this week in Tunis where both men were attending a technology conference, Israel's foreign ministry said on Saturday.

It was the highest level contact between Israeli and Lebanese officials in years, but the foreign ministry downplayed the significance of the handshake with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, a staunch ally of Israel's longtime foe Damascus.

"There was a handshake at the house of the president of Tunisia at an official reception," Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.

"The president of Lebanon went around shaking everyone's hands. He shook Shalom's hand. No words of any significance were exchanged. We don't attach any diplomatic importance to it."

Regev said he was not sure whether the Lebanese leader recognised Shalom. Lebanon and Syria remain officially at war with the Jewish state, and Lebanese officials avoid contact with Israelis.

Shalom, who was the first Israeli foreign minister to visit Tunisia, had said he hoped his trip would improve Israel's links to Arab countries. Shalom also met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Tunis in the highest level contacts in months.

Syria, which was the main powerbroker in Lebanon for three decades, wants smaller Lebanon as its ally in any future peace talks with Israel and opposes a separate deal between Beirut and the Jewish state.

Lebanon, while partly occupied by Israel, signed a U.S.-brokered peace accord with Israel in 1983 but abrogated it the following year after an uprising by Syrian-backed militias.

Israel ended its 22-year occupation of south Lebanon in 2000 under pressure from attacks by the Shi'ite Hizbollah guerrilla group, which still occasionally skirmishes with Israeli forces on the frontier. (Reuters)