Reports of a suspected strong earthquake to hit Lebanon soon caused panic, sending hundreds of southern villagers and others living on the coast to sleep in the open.

Reports from Israel expected a strong earthquake to rock Lebanon and parts of the Jewish state soon.

Secretary-General of the National Scientific Research Center Moeen Hamzeh denied Monday such a report.

"We have no new information about imminent earthquakes," said Hamzeh in a statement published by the state-run National News Agency.

"Chances of having an earthquake are impossible," he said.

Israeli authorities on Monday urged health officials in the north to make preparations for such an event.

"The probability of an earthquake of a magnitude of up to six on the Richter scale, originating in Lebanon and being felt in Israel has increased," the health ministry said in a letter sent to medical officials in northern Israel.

Since February, abnormal seismic activity has been noted in southern Lebanon, which had suffered some 500 minor earthquakes in a three-month period, Israeli health ministry director-general Avi Yisraeli said in the letter.

"In May, the tremors have become more intense and were felt in northern Israel," he said adding that "should an earthquake of such magnitude hit northern Israel, it may cause substantial infrastructural damage in the area.

Hamzeh said that 800 tremors ranging from 2.3-5.1 degrees on the Richter scale had shaken the south Lebanon regions of Tyre and Nabatiyeh since February 12.

"The tremors increased significantly in May and June," he said, urging the Lebanese authorities to take "serious prevention measures."

Some seismologists in Israel say that quakes have historically rocked the region every eight decades, and the last one was nearly 81 years ago.

About 300 people were killed in Jerusalem and nearby Jericho by the July 11, 1927 temblor.

A similar quake measuring seven on the Richter scale and with an epicenter in the Hula Valley, today in northern Israel, devastated the town of Safed and killed some 4,000 people in 1837.