Jerusalem/Gaza  - Continued Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip on southern Israel will be met with "a painful, sharp, strong and uncompromising response," outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday.

Speaking at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, he warned that "the state of Israel has a wide range of options that will be utilized in order to bring complete quiet to the south" and said the Israel action will "in no way be what the terrorist organizations expect."

Olmert made the remarks after militants in the Strip fired at least eight rockets at southern Israel on Friday and Saturday, and said the militias were trying to make up for the losses they suffered during Israel's 22-day offensive against them, which ended on January 18.

Israel launched the devastating offensive on December 27, after the end of a truce with the militias saw an increase in rocket fire from the Strip.

The offensive, which began with a week of concerted air raids before ground troops entered the enclave, resulted in hundreds of Palestinians dead, and some 14,000 homes damaged partially or completely.

A high-level conference on the reconstruction of the Strip is to be held in Egypt on Monday and on Sunday former British prime minister Tony Blair - Middle East envoy of the "Quartet" of the US, Russia, the EU and the UN - visited the territory to assess the damage.

He began his tour with a visit to the Jebaliya refugee camp, in the north of the Strip, and also visited a UNRWA school which came under Israeli fire.

Blair had no plans to meet with representatives of the Islamic Hamas movement, which administers the Gaza Strip, and which is boycotted by Western countries because of its refusal to recognise Israel's right to exist.

The envoy called off a visit to the Gaza Strip last year, citing security concerns.

Also Sunday, heavy rains in the morning caused a smuggling tunnel under the Gaza Strip-Sinai border to cave in, killing five Palestinians, medical officials said.

A sixth Palestinian who was working in the tunnel at the tine of its collapse is still missing, witnesses said.

Another Palestinian was killed Saturday in a similar tunnel collapse.

Since December Israel has been bombing the tunnels under the Gaza Strip-Egypt border, weakening them and making it easier for them to collapse in bad weather.

Palestinians use the tunnels to smuggle into the salient goods made scarce by the Israeli blockade, and also use them as conduits for weapons to the militant groups in the enclave.

Approximately 50 Palestinians were killed in the cross-border tunnels last year, mainly as a result of Egypt's efforts to fight the smuggling. dpa