Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Wednesday that Israel apologized for the death of four UN observers, and the army did not deliberately fire at a UN post.

"There is no commander in the army who would deliberately direct fire at civilians or UN soldiers," Livni told a press conference in Haifa in northern Israel.

Livni said that the Israeli government expressed its sorrow and regret over the incident and apologized for the incident. "We didn 't expect that such an accident would happen," she added.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan earlier accused Israel of " apparently deliberate targeting" of a UN observer force in the Lebanese town of Khiyam near the eastern end of the border with Israel. He then called for an inquiry into the event.

On Tuesday night, four UN military observers were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their post in Khiyam. The victims were from Finland, Austria, Canada and China. Five UN soldiers and one military observer were also wounded.

Regarding a conference in the Italian capital of Rome aimed at seeking a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah, Livni said that there was an issue for the international community to implement UN Resolution 1559.

She reiterated that the Lebanon-based Hezbollah guerrillas should be disarmed and expelled from Lebanon.

Created in 1978 and deployed in south Lebanon since then, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has been committed to confirming an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, restoring peace and security and helping the Lebanese government restore its effective authority in the area.

Violence erupted in Lebanon on July 12 when Israel started a massive assault following the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah guerillas in a cross-border attack.

Source: Xinhua