Israeli and Lebanese military officials are meeting for emergency talks to try to stem the latest violence in south Lebanon.

The meeting follows intense American efforts to halt the upsurge in attacks by both Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas.

Israel launched air raids in retaliation for the killing of six Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, which is battling Israel's occupation of south Lebanon. The Israeli bombing destroyed three power stations and wounded more than 20 people.

The fighting has raised fears for the future of peace talks between Israel and Syria - which is the main power broker in Lebanon and a tacit supporter of Hezbollah.

Friday's meeting of the five-nation monitoring committee brings together military representatives of Lebanon, Syria and Israel under American and French supervision at a United Nations peacekeeping base inside the Israeli-occupied zone.

Washington said it would put pressure on all sides to show restraint.

"We've made clear to the parties what's at stake and we still believe that the parties have the ability to move forward, make the tough decisions and reach a comprehensive peace agreement," White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said.

"We have always felt ... that all the leaders involved here still believe it is in their interest to make peace.

"And that is what ultimately leads us to believe that this process is worthwhile and we should stick with it," he added.

Fiercest attack

Israeli jets bombed suspected guerrilla targets beyond its occupation zone in Lebanon on Thursday but, in a sign that tension was easing, told its own citizens to leave bomb shelters near the Lebanese border where they had spent three nights.

The US-sponsored negotiations between Israel and Syria resumed in December after a 45-month break only to stall again over Syrian demands for an Israeli commitment to return the occupied Golan Heights.

Israel accuses Syria of stirring up the guerrillas to raise the pressure for concessions.

'Peace not bloodshed'

Syria said the Israeli strikes could not be justified but declared that the region needed peace and not bloodshed.

US President Bill Clinton said on Thursday that a resumption of the negotiations was a priority.

Danny Yatom, security adviser to Prime Minister Ehud Barak, said: "We are interested in returning to the Grapes of Wrath understandings on the condition that the other side, the terrorists, will go back and act according to the understandings."

The monitoring committee has no powers of sanction and the BBC's Christopher Hack in Beirut says long hours of discussion are likely to result in little more than a communique condemning breaches of the pre-agreed rules of engagement.

But according to one Western diplomat in Beirut, the committee is the only venue where the warring sides hold face-to-face talks and such communication is essential if there is to be any hope of easing tension in south Lebanon.