HIGHLIGHTS|| Hezbollah Has No Plans of Automatic Attacks Against Israel in Case of War in Iraq|| Israeli Occupation Troops Kill Two More Palestinians || Israel Adamant in Refusing to Allow Palestinians Attend London Conference|| EU Asks Palestinians to Declare Unconditional Ceasefire||STORY: Syria's official Sana news agency quoted a military spokesman as saying a Syrian police officer was killed in the UN-monitored border zone separating Syria from Israel.

A second policeman went missing during the incident, when the two officers and a third man crossed into the border sector in an attempt to bring back water from a nearby river, Sana said.

"A Syrian patrol that was nearby returned fire at the Israeli side," he said, adding that shooting at civilians in the border zone was a violation of an agreement between Israel and Syria following the 1973 Israeli-Arab War

In Israel area commander Brig. Gen. Avi Mizrahi said in a border clash, Israeli occupation soldiers exchanged fire with an armed man who crossed into the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights from Syria, killing him and capturing a second infiltrator, who was unarmed, A third man fired from inside Syria, but "we didn't fire back because we didn't want to make the situation worse," he said.

It was a rare occurrence on the Israel-Syria border, though the two countries are bitter enemies. The last reported infiltration was in September 2001, when Israeli occupation soldiers found a bag of weapons and explosives on the Israeli side of the border. The infiltrator in that incident apparently escaped back into Syria.

Israel captured the strategic plateau overlooking the country's northern valley and the Sea of Galilee in the 1967 Mideast war. Syria demands the land be returned in exchange for peace, but negotiations broke down in 2000.

The Israeli military said it had been at least 15 years since it had caught an armed infiltrator crossing the border from Syria. United Nations observers on the border were unavailable for comment.

However, the Israeli military has been warning of attacks across the Lebanese border - to the south of the Syrian frontier - by Syrian-backed Hezbollah resistance men should the United States attack Iraq.

Hezbollah Says it Has No Plans for Automatic Attack on Israel in Case of Iraq War

In Beirut, Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance movement said it would not attack Israel automatically in the event of a US-led war on Iraq, but would only strike back if the Jewish state harmed Lebanese civilians.

"In the history of its resistance, Hezbollah never attacked Israeli positions or targets except in retaliation for Israeli aggression against Lebanese civilians," Hezbollah MP Abdullah Qassir said.

"Hezbollah remains committed to this line and is not concerned by anything outside it," the deputy of the Shiite Muslim group told reporters.

Qassir was responding to the question of whether his party planned to attack Israel in a gesture of support to Iraq, if Iraq itself was attacked.

He was speaking after a meeting with Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud, during which he said they discussed "the war that the United States is preparing against Iraq and its eventual repercussions in the region."

Israeli Occupation Troops Kill Two Palestinians

Earlier, the Israeli occupation army shot dead an 18-year-old civilian in the northern West Bank village of Saida, Palestinian witnesses said. He was said to have been standing on a roof near a house soldiers were demolishing when one of them opened fire on him.

Another Palestinian was killed during an exchange of fire with occupationsoldiers in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis, a few hundred meters (yards) from the internationally illegal Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim, Palestinian witnesses said.

Following a resistance bombing in Tel Aviv Sunday that killed 22 people, Israel further tightened restrictions on Palestinian movement. It confined senior officials to their cities and barred all other Palestinians under 35 from leaving the territories.

A top-level Palestinian delegation was also prevented from travelling to London for talks next week on internal reforms with other regional and international interlocutors, at the invitation of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Israel Adamant in Refusing to allow Palestinians to Attend London Conference

Israel on Wednesday stuck with its decision to bar a Palestinian delegation from attending a London peace conference, despite protests by Britain the European Union and criticism at home that the move is shortsighted and counterproductive.

Israel rebuffed an appeal by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to reconsider the ban, souring Israel's relations with the European nation that has been most sympathetic to Israel during more than two years of Mideast fighting.

Two Israeli newspapers reported that a letter from Blair to Sharon, asking him again to rescind the decision, would be delivered later Wednesday.

"Even between friends there are sometimes disagreements," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled. "Britain is a friend of Israel's and Tony Blair is a friend of Israel's and we have no interest in entering a conflict with the British."

Pressure Mounts on Israel to Allow Delegation to Leave for London

After meeting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the West Bank town of Ramallah, European Union envoy Miguel Moratinos said the European Union had asked the Palestinian Authority to "declare an unconditional and total cease-fire to put an end to this senseless cycle of violence" after the bombing. Moratinos also criticized Israel's retaliatory measures.

"I'm going to ask the Israelis to allow the Palestinian personalities to go to London. The British consulate is also trying with the Israelis, so we'll see what happens," Moratinos told reporters.

PHOTO CAPTION

A blindfolded man sits against the fence of an Israeli army post next to the Syrian border in nothern Israel Wednesday Jan. 8, 2003 after being arrested by Israeli soldiers. Israeli troops traded gunfire Wednesday with a small group of armed men who crossed the border from Syria, killing one of the men and capturing another, the military said. A third retreated into Syria, Israel Radio reported. (AP Photo/Yaron