"We are not speaking of preparations for a war to be carried out attheir (Iran, Syria, andHezbollah) own initiative. Their deployments, in our opinion, are those of adefensive nature," Yaldin said.

He further suggested that military preparations by Hezbollah,Iran and Syria stem from a deep belief that the U.S. is planning to strike Iran's nuclearfacilities this summer.

He said that the three parties believe that Israel would also be involved insuch conflict, and that they are not expected to initiate the war.

"They fear military action initiated by the Americans, whom theyanticipate to be planning an attack against Iran in the summer," he added.

Yadlin's remarks, made in his briefing at the government's weekly cabinetmeeting, followed a statement by Dr. Arieh Eldad, member of the IsraeliKnesset, in which he said that Israelwill be at war with the Lebanese resistance movement this summer.

Dr Eldad admitted that "Hezbollah is becoming stronger every day,"

"They are rebuilding their ammunition stores, their medium and longmissiles. They are going back to their bunkers in the south of Lebanon."

Yadlin referred to the 1967 Six-Day War, the armed conflict that broke outin June 1967 between Israeland the Arab states of Egypt,Jordan, and Syria,suggesting that a similar war could take place despite that fact that neitherside is interested or ready for such a war. 

"We are closely following theses preparations, with concern that theparties can incorrectly interpret specific movement of forces in the region. Iwish to remind you of the Six-Day War - when a war that no one wanted broke outas a result of the involvement of many players,".

"We need to be one side prepared, but on the other hand to be carefulsuch steps will not result to erroneous thinking on our part." 

There is a growing concern among members of the United States military, and in the international community that Washington could be planning for another war in theregion, this time against Iran,to stop it from practicing its legal right, under the Nuclear-Non ProliferationTreaty, to pursue peaceful nuclear technology.

U.S. and Europeanintelligence agencies and Israelclaim that Iranis intent on developing the capability to produce nuclear weapons, charges thathad been repeatedly denied by the Islamic Republic which asserts that itsnuclear program is solely aimed at peaceful purposes.

President Bush himself hasn't ruled out using the military option to stopwhat he usually describes as the "Iranian nuclear threat".