Beirut  - Lebanese Defence Minister Elias Murr said Tuesday Lebanon will not give Israel an excuse to launch an aggression against the country.

"The army, the resistance, and the people are determined not to give Israel any excuse to launch aggression against Lebanon," Murr told reporters.

Speaking at Rafik Hariri International Airport, where he received his Italian counterpart, Ignazio La Russa, Musrr said that "those who launched the (Katyusha) rockets from the south are Israeli agents and the army would confront them in any similar attempt."

Murr said that he had told his Italian counterpart that the Lebanese army would not stand for the launching of rockets

La Russa, for his part, stressed Italy's commitment to continued participation in UNIFIL and support for the Lebanese army.

On January 8, unknown militants fired three Katyuhsa rocket into northern Israel, wounding two people.

The rocket attack was the first such incident from Lebanon since the July 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

The rocket attacks, which were blamed mostly on hardline Palestinian groups as a protest against the Israeli incursion in Gaza, and not Hezbollah, raised concerns about a wider war in the region. dpa