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Rocket slams into north Israel

JERUSALEM: A Katyusha rocket, apparently fired by guerrillas in Lebanon, slammed into northern Israel on Sunday, two days ahead of a U.S.-Israeli summit to discuss Israel's planned withdrawal of troops from Lebanon.

Witnesses said the rocket struck a chicken coop in northern Israel. They said no one was wounded.

An Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed an attack in Israel and said it was "probable" other rockets had fallen inside an Israeli occupation zone of southern Lebanon.

Hizbollah guerrillas have been fighting to oust Israel from the border strip in Lebanon which Israel carved out in the mid-1980s.

Despite the attack, the first on northern Israel in more than three weeks, Barak told reporters he was sticking to his plan to pull Israeli troops out of Lebanon by July, ending a more than 20-year occupation.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, Barak said: "I have no doubt we are doing the right thing..."

"The security zone in south Lebanon doesn't prevent and couldn't prevent in the past the firing of Katyushas or mortar bombs on the settlements of the north," the Israeli leader said.

In the last Katyusha attack, the rockets struck an army outpost but no one was injured.

Barak was due to meet U.S. President Bill Clinton in Washington on Tuesday to discuss the troop withdrawal which he has vowed to carry out, with or without a peace deal with Syria, the main power in Lebanon.

Syria and Lebanon have both warned Israel of possible attacks over the border if Israel carries out a unilateral withdrawal from the 15-km security zone.

Syria demands the return of the Golan Heights captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. A meeting last month between Clinton and Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in Geneva failed to restart Israel-Syria talks that have been frozen since January.

Israel has promised severe reprisals on Lebanon if its northern settlements are struck.

"We live from miracle to miracle. The retreat (from Lebanon) hasn't begun but we already see the results," Yaacov, a resident of northern Israel, told Reuters.

Barak's office said the prime minister and Clinton would discuss at their Washington meeting "the role of the international community in advance of the anticipated withdrawal from south Lebanon by July".

Israel has been trying to rally international support for the Lebanon pullout which it says will be the implementation of United Nations resolutions.

Hizbollah militia have not said what they will do in the event of an Israeli withdrawal, but Lebanese President Emile Lahoud has warned of possible Palestinian attacks.

Barak told reporters the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon, where they control 150,000-200,000 residents, and their redeployment to the international border would give Israel the legitimacy and justification to act against those who attack it which was lacking so long as Israel occupied south Lebanon.-Reuters