Beirut  - Five rockets were found late Wednesday near Naqoura close to the southern Lebanon border with Israel, a Lebanese army statement said, adding that they were not primed.

Cairo  - As Egypt's Thursday deadline for negotiating a truce in the Gaza Strip approaches, a Hamas representative said an agreement was unlikely by the end of Wednesday's negotiations.

"There is still a huge gap between Hamas and Israel concerning a truce. Thus, more time is needed," Mohammed Nizzal, a member of Hamas' political bureau in Damascus, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Wednesday.

Egypt is brokering a long-term, sustainable ceasefire between Israel and Hamas to continue the fragile calm in the enclave that went into effect on January 18 after the end of a 22-day offensive by Israel. Egypt has set February 5 as a deadline for Hamas to accept a truce.

Berlin  - Daniel Barenboim, the Argentinian-born conductor, called Tuesday for a new "Marshall plan" under German leadership to rebuild the smashed infrastructure of the Gaza Strip.

The call came in remarks prepared for delivery at a Berlin prize-giving.

He said Germany should learn to "cope with its feelings of guilt" about the Holocaust in a new way, and offer in reparation "to help the Jewish people to come to terms with the Palestinians."

Cairo  - An Egyptian opposition politician will face military trial on Thursday in the Suez Canal town of Ismailiya on charges of crossing into the Gaza Strip illegally, sources told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa on Tuesday.

Magdi Hussein, a fiery orator from Egypt's suspended Labour Party, was detained last Saturday when he came back to Egypt after spending a week in the Strip.

Gaza City  - Israeli F16 warplanes rocketed tunnels and a Hamas outpost in two separate airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip Tuesday evening, witnesses said.

At least two rockets struck the border area between the southern Gaza town of Rafah and Egypt, they said, adding they heard two successive loud explosions in the area and the sound of F16s flying overheard.

One missile also hit a a post of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, the radical Islamic movement ruling Gaza. No injuries were reported in either of the strikes.

Tel Aviv  - Palestinian militants fired a Russian-type Grad rocket Tuesday morning at the southern Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon.

The rocket landed in a residential neighbourhood in the city centre, "just a number of metres from heavy traffic," Mayor Beni Wakni said.

"Only Hamas has Grad rockets as far as I know, so this is Hamas," he told Israel Radio.