BEIRUT, Lebanon - Israeli aircraft dropped thousands of leaflets denouncing Hezbollah fighters over Lebanon's capital of Beirut and its southern province yesterday morning, two days after some of the worst border clashes in years.

The dropping of the pamphlets which said Hezbollah was a tool of Syria and Iran was clearly an attempt to turn Lebanese people against the guerrilla group, which a senior UN official has blamed for the flare-up in fighting.

"Hezbollah is causing enormous harm to Lebanon," the leaflets said in Arabic, adding that Israel is determined to protect its citizens.

The Lebanese army said an Israeli aircraft approached Beirut from the Mediterranean and dropped leaflets that contained "incitement against the resistance".

The Lebanese Government condemned the drop, with Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh saying Israeli violations of Lebanese territory were a threat to peace.

"We seek calm and stability, but this calm and stability must include our air space, waters and all our land," Salloukh said in a statement.

Hezbollah dismissed the leaflets as "an expression of Israeli failures in facing Hezbollah", the group's media chief, Mohammad Afif, said in a statement.

"To the Lebanese citizens," read one of the leaflets that landed on Beirut's seafront. "Who protects Lebanon? Who is lying to you? Who is sending your children to a battle they are not ready for? Who wishes the return of the destruction? Who is the tool in the hand of his Syrian and Iranian masters?"

The note was signed "The State of Israel."

The leaflets landed in many parts of the city, including the Palestinian refugee camps in south Beirut. Pamphlets were also dropped over southern Lebanon, the province that borders northern Israel and which is effectively under Hezbollah's control. Lebanon has refused to deploy its army in the province saying it will not defend Israel's border.

In occupied Jerusalem, the Israeli military confirmed that its aircraft had dropped the leaflets over Lebanon.

A Lebanese analyst said an Israeli attempt to undermine Hezbollah by exploiting Lebanese-Syrian tension would backfire.

"Any Israeli involvement in the disputes between Lebanon and Syria will have the opposite effect," Sateh Noureddine said. Noureddine, who writes a column for As Safir newspaper, which has taken a line close to Hezbollah and Syria, added that Israeli interference was likely to make the Lebanese and Syrians close ranks.

The reason for Monday's flare-up, after several months of calm, is unclear. Hezbollah is a close ally of Syria and it may have been encouraged to attack to take pressure off the Damascus Government, which is facing an UN investigation into the February assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

In Israel yesterday, Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said Israeli forces had delivered a measured response.

"I think our level of response answered both needs: preserving deterrent capabilities, without dragging us into an escalation that the Lebanese, Syrians and Iranians want to deflect international attention from the pressure on Syria," Mofaz told Army Radio. (AP)