At least four people have been wounded in clashes between Palestinian fighters and Lebanese armed men just outside Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, witnesses said.

They said several cars were set ablaze on Sunday in the skirmishes between Jund al-Sham, one of several Palestinian Islamist groups in the southern Ain el-Hilweh camp, and the Lebanese Popular Nasserist Group.

It was not clear what sparked the clashes in a poor neighbourhood between the camp and Sidon proper, but armed groups sporadically clash over authority inside the tense camp, which the Lebanese army does not enter.

A Reuters reporter saw masked Jund al-Sham fighters emerge from Ain al-Hilweh and occupy rooftops in the neighbourhood.

Several residents fled the area, fearing the clashes might worsen.

PHOTO CAPTION

A man extinguishes a mini-van, with a hose from his house window, after it was set on fire during a shootout between the Palestinian Jund al-Sham group and the Lebanese Nasserite Popular Organization on the fringe of Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp, near the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 23, 2005. (AP)