BEIRUT, Dec 28 (AFP) - Israeli warplanes struck a Palestinian base just south of Beirut early Wednesday lightly wounding two militants in the first air raid so close to the Lebanese capital in 18 months.

Israeli commanders said the strike was in retaliation for overnight rocket fire on the border town of Kiryat Shmona but the militant group which operates the base denied any involvement in the firings.

The Naameh base operated by the pro-Syrian radical faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), lies 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Beirut.

"Two members of the Front were slightly injured in an Israeli missile strike Wednesday at 4:30 am (0230 GMT), which blew a hole in a concrete armoured protection wall in Naameh," PFLP-GC official Anwar Raja told AFP.

Lebanon's state-run ANI news agency said the raid shattered windows and cut the power supply in the town of Naameh. Lebanese anti-aircraft batteries opened fire on the Israeli planes.

A spokesman for the Israeli army said the base was targeted as "a riposte to the rocket attack", the first against Kiryat Shmona since Israel's 2000 withdrawal from southern lebanon after a 22-year occupation.

At least three Katyusha rockets had struck the town, hitting the roofs of two houses while power supplies were cut and residents ordered to bomb shelters, security sources said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility but the Shiite militant Hezbollah, which is responsible for the majority of attacks against Israeli targets from Lebanese territory, said it was unaware of the rocket fire.

Israel's commander for the north of the country, General Udi Adam, told public radio that he held Palestinian militant groups responsible.

"The Palestinian groups are responsible for Katyusha rocketing of Kiryat Shmona, but I wouldn't be surprised if Hezbollah had given them the green light," he said.

"We will not permit the firing of Katyushas against our territory becoming the norm," Adam said.

"We hold the Lebanese government responsible for the operations against Israel from its territory, and our raid must be understood as a warning," he warned.

But the PFLP-GC accused Israel of falsely pointing the finger in its direction in a bid to stoke up international pressure on the Lebanese government to disarm its fighters in line with a UN Security Council resolution adopted in September 2004.

"Israel wants to blame us for the rocket attacks to provoke a hostile reaction against us in Lebanon. We say to our Lebanese brothers that we were in no way implicated," he said.

"By naming us, they (the Israelis) want to provoke the Lebanese authorities into disarming the Palestinian fighters in line with Resolution 1559."

In October, Lebanon's new anti-Syrian Prime Minister Fuad Siniora ordered troops to surround Naameh and other PLFP-GC bases in the Bekaa Valley on the border with Syria after an army surveyor was killed in an attack blamed on Palestinian militants.

But the siege was later abandoned without any suspects being handed over and without any progress on diarming the militants.

Siniora's government has been cautious in its handling of the disarmament issue, particularly concerning Hezbollah, which forms part of the governing coalition although its ministers have been boycotting cabinet sessions in recent weeks.

Israeli aircraft continued to overfly much of Lebanon during the day on Wednesday, conducting mock raids over the eastern Bekaa Valley.

Israeli warplanes were also seen in the skies over the main southern towns of Tyre, Nabatiyeh, Bint Jbeil, Marjayoun and Hasbaya, as well as in the north of the country, an army statement said.

Despite UN calls for it to respect Lebanese sovereignty airspace, Israel has repeatedly conducted such overflights ever since its 2000 withdrawal of ground forces.

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