An Israeli soldier was wounded late Friday in crossfire between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants months after the last tit-for-tat killings around the disputed Shebaa Farms in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli military said its aircraft and artillery returned fire at Hezbollah positions after the Shiite militia movement launched an attack in the Shebaa Farms area, wounding one soldier.

Hezbollah militants fired rockets on the Rwaisat al-Alam position in the Shebaa Farms area in apparent retaliation for the killing of a Lebanese shepherd by Israeli soldiers, according to Lebanese security sources.

The 17-year-old shepherd inside Lebanon was killed on Wednesday by Israeli troops, both Lebanese officials and UN peacekeepers confirmed the incident next day, while Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed to avenge the killing.

But an Israeli spokeswoman said Israeli troops shot him dead because he was trying to infiltrate the border and had opened fire.

"Any attempt by Hezbollah to tie this attack with the armed man who crossed the border on Wednesday and fired at our troops is completely baseless," she said.

The exchange of fire lasted for about one and a half hours before a ceasefire was managed, the UN sources reported.

In another development, Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh on Friday met with the ambassadors of China, France, Russia, Britain and the United States -- the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- to inform them of the incident.

Accusing Israel of killing the teenage shepherd, Lebanon asked the UN Security Council to take necessary measures to prevent recurrence of similar incidents.

The mountainous Shebaa Farms area, which lies at the convergence of the Lebanese-Syrian-Israeli borders, remains under control of Israel although it withdrew troops from Lebanon in May 2000.

Israel says the Shebaa Farms area is Syrian land and that the issue should be negotiated with Syria, but Lebanon claims the land had already belonged to Lebanon with Damascus consent.

Border clashes have occurred frequently in the past five years with one of the deadliest reported in November 2005, when four Hezbollah guerrillas were killed and 11 Israeli soldiers wounded.

Source: Xinhua