United Nations peacekeepers have contradicted Lebanese claims that Israeli forces were operating within Lebanese territory before a border flare-up which led to the deaths of four people.

The fighting has raised international concerns that Israel’s relationship with Lebanon could deteriorate, less than four years after a ceasefire was negotiated to end the Second Lebanon War with Hizbollah.

"We now hold a large and precise bank of Israeli targets, and Israel will have to pay the price for any step it takes.

"Hizbollah has worked to develop its readiness to rise to the challenge should it arise, and we can safely say that in the past four years we have prepared ourselves far more than Israel has.”

The Foreign Office has removed a blogpost by the British ambassador to Lebanon after she wrote of her admiration for a Hizbollah leader who praised suicide bombers and was labelled a terrorist by the United States.

But despite international outcry about the post, in which Ambassador Frances Guy described Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah as her “favourite politician”, she has not been recalled as ambassador.

Ms Guy made the comments in an obituary for the Shia cleric, believed to be Hizbollah’s spiritual leader, who died earlier in July.

Britain’s ambassador to Lebanon has called Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, believed to be the spiritual leader of Hizbollah, her “favourite politician”.

The Shia cleric, who died on Sunday, was known for praising suicide bombers and calling for war against Israel and the West.

A Lebanese concert organiser has called boycotts against musicians that have performed in Israel “ridiculous”.

Entertainment tycoon Jihad al-Murr spoke in the wake of demands by Lebanese protesters that the British rock band Placebo should pull out of an upcoming Beirut concert after also playing in Tel Aviv.

Campaigners had said the group was unwelcome in Lebanon after launching Israel Pic.Nic festival, but Mr al-Murr said it would be foolish to “boycott every minister, official or artist that has ever visited Israel”.

US academic Noam Chomsky, who was barred from entering Israel last week has met Hizbollah’s spiritual leader in Lebanon, telling him Israel has a “persecution complex.”

Professor Chomsky, who has been an outspoken critic of Israel, met Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah in Lebanon, where he told the Hizbollah leader he did not expect Israel to attack Lebanon except out of a “mentality of madness”.