The clashes between pro-government supporters of Druse leader Walid Jumblatt and Shiite gunmen and their allies started in the mountain town of Aytat and involved exchanges of rockets and machine gun fire, the officials said. It later spread to the nearby towns of Kayfoun, Qamatiyeh, Bchamoun and Chouweifat, they added.

There were no initial reports of casualties. Jumblatt called for a halt to the fighting and for the army to take control of the mountains.

The clashes came a day after Hezbollah accused Jumblatt's followers of killing two of their supporters and kidnapping a third.

The street fighting is latest turn in a test of wills between the Hezbollah-led opposition and the government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora. The US-backed government has only a slim majority in parliament, and the two sides have been locked in a 17-month power struggle. The deadlock has prevented parliament from electing a president, leaving the country without a head of state since November.

Violence erupted after the government confronted Hezbollah earlier in the week saying it would sack the chief of airport security for alleged ties to the militant group and declared the its private telephone network illegal and a threat to state security.

The army offered Hezbollah a compromise, allowing the airport security chief to retain his post and recommending the government to reverse its decision on the phone network.

A government official said the Cabinet would meet in the next two days "to discuss the possible exits for the crisis". It is widely believed the cabinet will then revoke its decisions.

Arab foreign ministers met in Egypt to try to find a solution to the latest crisis.

Pope Benedict XVI urged the Lebanese people to find a "reasonable compromise" to end their conflict, telling pilgrims in St. Peter's Square that he was following "with deep concern" the developments in Lebanon, where, "with political initiative at a stalemate, first came verbal violence and then armed clashes, with many dead and wounded".