"We have information that this attack was carried out by international terror groups that are not directly affiliated to the terror organizations inside Lebanon," a senior Israeli official quoted Olmert as telling Parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

The official said that the groups were believed to be linked to Al-Qaeda.

Israeli police said last Tuesday that two rockets fired from Lebanon hit a community in northern Israel causing no casualties a day before US President George W. Bush started a landmark visit to the region.

The Lebanese military denied any rockets had been fired. Hizbullah also denied any involvement in the incident.

"The firing of the rockets is disturbing. We are examining the implications and the appropriate response to the issue, but this is not necessarily tied to the internal reality in Lebanon," Olmert said.

"We do not think that this type of incident will become a regular occurrence," he added.

In other developments, two weeks before the publication of the final Winograd Report on the 2006 war between Lebanon and Israel, Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz has attacked Olmert's handling of the conflict.

Speaking at an event sponsored by the Geneva Initiative on Saturday evening, Mofaz rejected recent attempts to blame the Israeli Army and its top officers for the failures of the war.

He said the blame lied instead with the political echelon.

"The main problem with the war was its confused and failed management," Mofaz said. "It's the same army and the same officers who fought in Operation Defensive Shield [in the occupied West Bank] four years earlier and won."

Mofaz was defense minister for five years, up until four months before the war, and he was the chief of the Israeli military's General Staff for three years before that.

Mofaz said the war's failures had nothing to do with the army's preparations ahead of the conflict.

In criticism aimed at Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who was the force behind the drafting of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 that ended the war, Mofaz said that despite the resolution, Hizbullah was stronger now than before the conflict.

"Resolution 1701 is not worth the paper it was written on," he said.

Mofaz's spokeswoman said he had issued the same criticism many times over the last few months. But she understood that the words were now being interpreted differently due to the proximity to Winograd's release.

If the report is harsh, Mofaz could be among the Olmert critics who urge him to quit.

If Olmert resigned under pressure, Mofaz would challenge Livni and other candidates for the Kadima leadership.

The spokesman for the Winograd Commission said that the completed report would be presented to Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak on January 30.

The commission's interim findings delivered last April were highly critical of Olmert, his government and senior military commanders.

Olmert was accused of lacking "judgment, responsibility and prudence" in his decision to go to war.

The commission has said it will not directly recommend Olmert should resign. He has vowed to remain in office and repair the faults found by the commission despite heavy pressure from all political quarters. - Agencies