BEIRUT, Aug 7: Hezbollah guerrillas fired rockets on Wednesday at Israeli positions in southern Lebanon, and some landed across the border in northern Israel, security officials said even as representatives of US, Lebanon, France, Syria and Israel were preparing to hold talks for monitoring truce in Southern Lebanon.

The guerrillas fired an estimated 40 rockets from several spots outside the Israeli-occupied border strip. Some of the rockets overshot the border , said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

There were no reports of injuries and Israeli officials did not immediately confirm the attack. But Israel has in the past retaliated harshly to attacks across the border.

Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim guerrilla group, claimed responsibility for the midnight attack and said it was a response to the recent Israeli massacres in the South.

That was a reference to Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon this week that killed five guerrillas and two civilians.

Hezbollah said its rocket forces targeted the Israeli Army positions at Blatt and at Birkit Risha, which are about five kilometres (three miles) north of the border inside Lebanon.

The attack came on the eve of a meeting on Thursday of representatives from the United States, France, Lebanon, Israel and Syria to monitor a truce in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah, or party of god, has vowed to avenge Israel's killing of three of its field commanders, who were among the five guerrillas killed this week.Meanwhile in Egypt, Jordan's crown prince Hassan met President Hosni Mubarak for talks on the latest crisis in the Middle East peace process.

Officials said the two men were meeting privately first and would later be joined by the prime ministers and foreign ministers of both countries.

Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab states which have peace deals with Israel, have led diplomatic efforts to ease the latest crisis ahead of a visit to the region by US envoy Dennis Ross.

Prince Hassan was unable to persuade Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem yesterday to ease the sanctions imposed after the twin bombings in Jerusalem.

In the aftermath, Israel suspended a resumption of its talks with the Palestinians and sealed off the West Bank and Gaza Strip, preventing Palestinians from going to their places of work in Israel proper.

``Netanyahu has declared war on us and we have to prepare for what will come. The situation is serious,'' Arafat said in an interview.

Earlier, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright announced plans for a first visit to the region at the end of this month to discuss speeding up talks on a final Israeli-Palestinian settlement.

But both Albright and President Bill Clinton put the onus squarely on the Palestinians to step up the fight against terrorism by cooperating fully with Israel on scrutiny matters and ensuring that potential terrorists are arrested.

Clinton criticised the Palestinian authority for falling short of its commitment to ensure security, saying that it had not shown a ``constant, 100 per cent effort'' to prevent attacks.

Albright telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat yesterday to discuss the breakdown of their peace process, officials said.

``Hard decisions have to be taken by the parties themselves,'' he said, adding if the issue was resolved to some extent, ``then the Secretary of State will soon go to the Middle East with the ideas that we have developed for going forward.''

However, the President, in an apparent recognition of Arafat's limitations in controlling terrorist groups like the Hamas, said he could not be sure ``that the bombs would not have exploded and killed these people if 100 per cent effort (to control terrorism against Israel) had been made.''

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.