Beirut- Defense Minister Elias Murr refused to return a truckload of weapons that was seized by Lebanese authorities on Thursday to Hezbollah, and said there were reports of possible attacks being planned by 'fundamentalist groups'

"I refuse to return the weapons to Hezbollah," Murr said on Kalam el Nas talk show on LBC television late Thursday, in response to a Hezbollah demand for an immediate release of the shipment.

"While the Lebanese resisting army was fighting the Israelis … Hezbollah should have donated these munitions to the army, which is the side concerned in curbing violations, instead of demanding their return," Murr added.

This was a reference to the brief exchange of fire overnight Wednesday between Lebanese troops and the Israeli army on the Lebanon-Israel border. U.N. peacekeepers sent tanks and armor to the area on Thursday to try to establish whether an Israeli bulldozer had crossed into Lebanon, sparking the shootout that caused no casualties.

Hezbollah's demand followed an announcement by Information Minister Ghazi Aridi that authorities had intercepted a truck full of ammunitions in the Hazmieh suburb east of Beirut Thursday.

The news came during a cabinet meeting which also discussed the nighttime Israeli-Lebanese shootout, the most serious clash since last summer's war between Hezbollah and the Jewish state.

"The preliminary information says the truck came from Bekaa Valley," said Aridi.

Murr said the shipment included rockets, but stressed that it came from within Lebanon.

"Not even a mosquito" could cross the Syrian-Lebanese border, he said, in references to allegations of Syrian assistance to Hezbollah.

Witnesses described the truck as a six-wheel. Some unconfirmed reports said it contained mainly machine guns and other light weapons. A security official later said the ammunition included 20 Grad rockets and 20 rocket launchers concealed in bags of straw.

Under U.N. resolution 1701 that ended this summer's Israel-Hezbollah war, the group is banned from rearming.

But Hezbollah said in a statement Thursday that the government must abide by its own policy, proclaimed in 2005, to support the "resistance" in the south. However , according to political analysts U.N. resolution 1701 should supersede whatever previous agreements the government may have had with Hezbollah.

Israel has accused Hezbollah of rearming and has said its air force would continue to monitor Lebanon to prevent weapons shipments to the group.

On the possible U.N. attacks, Murr said: "We have information on threats against UNIFIL."

He was referring to the U.N force monitoring the U.N.-brokered cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah in the buffer zone in southern Lebanon.

Murr said there were reports that "fundamentalist groups" in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh near south Lebanon's port city of Sidon, were contemplating attacks against the peacekeepers.

"Whether this information is true or not, we have to deal with it very carefully ... even if it has zero credibility," he said. He did not elaborate or give more details on the fundamentalist groups.

Israel and Syria have both warned of an increasing al-Qaida presence in Lebanon, though attacks here have been rare.

Lebanese security forces broke up several cells believed linked to al-Qaida early in the year. On Nov. 28, the leader of a Syrian militant group blew himself up on the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon in a clash with guards there in what may have been an attempt to infiltrate Lebanon.

In December, Israeli media reported that Israel had warned the 12,000 strong UNIFIL that al-Qaida is planning an attack on the force. The reports said Israel had received intelligence that al-Qaida's deputy chief, Ayman al-Zawahri, had issued the order to attack the peacekeepers.

In a video released this year marking the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S., al-Zawahri denounced the beefed-up U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

Also in December, during a visit to his country's contingent in south Lebanon, Italy's Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema warned that there is a risk of attack against UNIFIL and that they should be alert.

Sources: Naharnet, AP, Ya Libnan