Syrian shot dead in Golan Heights

Infiltration is rare across the heavily guarded border

Israeli forces have shot and killed a Syrian man in the Golan Heights, in a rare shooting incident on the normally quiet border.

Israeli military officials said the army came under fire from a group of armed Syrian men who had infiltrated into Israeli-occupied territory.

A second man was arrested by Israeli forces

"The soldiers returned fire and killed one of the group. The second member of the group was captured and taken for questioning... It was found they were Syrian soldiers who were dressed in civilian clothes," an army statement said.

Syria denied that any of its soldiers had crossed the border - and accused Israel of firing first.

"Three Syrian citizens, including two policemen in sports clothes, were... fired on from the Israeli side, leading to the martyrdom of one and the loss of another," a military spokesman told the state news agency Sana.

Syria accused Israel of violating a ceasefire agreement between the two countries.

A Syrian patrol returned fire, the spokesman said.

Mutual enmity

The border between Israel and Syria has been largely calm for decades, although the two countries are bitter enemies and remain technically at war.

The last reported infiltration was in September 2001, when Israeli soldiers found a bag of weapons and explosives on the Israeli side of the border.

Israel captured the strategically important Golan Heights, overlooking Syria's northern valley, in the 1967 war.

Syria demanded all of it back in exchange for peace, but negotiations broke down in 2000 and the matter remains unresolved.

In recent months, Israeli military intelligence officials have warned that militant groups in Lebanon and Syria might try to open up a second front and attack Israel if the United States decided to go to war with Iraq.

But Israel played down Wednesday's clash as an "isolated incident".

The skirmish comes as pressure builds on Israel to allow a Palestinian delegation to attend a conference in London designed to ease tensions and promote Palestinian reform.