Beirut  - Angry Lebanese and Palestinian demonstrators protesting Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip clashed with Lebanese security forces near the US embassy north of Beirut on Sunday, as the Palestinian group Hamas confirmed a one-week truce in Gaza.

The Lebanese police used tear gas and water cannons when the demonstrators broke through barbed wire placed just a few meters from the US embassy located in Awkar, 15 kilometres north of Beirut.

At least six demonstrators were wounded in the clashes.

The police initially managed to disperse the crowd, but the demonstrators regrouped and continued their protest near the embassy.

The demonstrators called on Lebanese government to expel the US ambassador in Lebanon to protest the US stand towards the Gaza conflict.

Later in the day followers of the leftist Democratic People's Party also staged a new demonstration near the US embassy.

The protestors burned pictures of US President George W Bush, US president-elect Barack Obama and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as well as US and Israeli flags.

The crowd also placed dolls on the barbed wire barricade near the embassy symbolizing the children killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza.

The second protest came as Moussa Abu Marzouq, the exiled number two of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, said in a speech on Syrian state television that Hamas and the Palestinian parties "announced a one-week truce to allow Israeli troops to withdraw."

On Saturday, Israel announced a unilateral ceasefire, but Hamas fired several rockets from Gaza on Sunday breaking the fragile truce. dpa