Tel Aviv - Israel will hold Lebanon responsible for any "aggression against Israel" from Lebanese territory, if the Iranian- backed Hezbollah organization joins the government in Beirut, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday.

"The moment that Hezbollah is part of the government, the sovereign State of Lebanon is responsible for any attack on the State of Israel that comes from its territory," the premier said during a tour of southern Israel.

Netanyahu's comments come amid escalating rhetoric between the Jewish state and the Lebanese guerrilla movement.

Israel and Shiite Islamist group fought an inconclusive war in the summer of 2006, after Hezbollah launched a cross-border raid which saw several Israeli soldiers killed and two kidnapped.

Israeli Minister of Intelligence Dan Meridor said Monday that Israel's border with Lebanon was not heating up.

"The border is quiet and Israel has no reason, and no interest, in breaking this quiet. And I hope that Hezbullah also is wise enough not to break this quiet," he told Israel Radio.(dpa)