UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today that Syria would step up border patrols and work with the Lebanese army to stop the flow of weapons to Hezbollah.

Syria opposes the deployment of an international force along its border to prevent arms shipments to Hezbollah, and Israel is calling the situation in Lebanon “explosive”.

An Israeli missile hit farm workers loading vegetables into a refrigerator truck near the Lebanon-Syria border today, killing or wounding as many as 40 people, the workers’ foreman said.