Two Israeli warplanes were involved in an armed incident with a German ship patrolling Lebanon's waters as part of the UN force in the Arab country, the German military told AFP.

A spokesman for the command of the German mission in Lebanon said it was investigating the incident which took place on Monday.

According to Thursday's edition of the Tagesspiegel newspaper, two Israeli F-16 warplanes fired shots as well as anti-missile defence flares while flying low over the German vessel.

The newspaper said the incident had been reported to parliament on Wednesday by a state secretary in the defence ministry, Christian Schmidt.

In Israel, Defence Minister Amir Peretz denied his country's planes had opened fire near a German ship, in a telephone call with German counterpart Franz Josep Jung.

"No Israeli plane opened fire at a German ship and Israel has no intention of attacking the German forces," Peretz said, according to his spokesman.

The defence minister also proposed closer cooperation between the Israeli military and the German naval force to Jung, whom he is due to meet in Israel next week.

France and the United Nations this week warned Israel that it was endangering the multinational peace mission in Lebanon by sending its fighter planes into Lebanese airspace.

Police in Lebanon have claimed that there were more Israeli flights over their country on Monday than on any other day since the end of the Jewish state's 34-day war with Hezbollah.

Peretz said at the weekend that the flights through Lebanese airspace would continue because of alleged arms smuggling to Hezbollah since the end of the war on August 14.

Germany is heading the naval component of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon but has refused to contribute ground troops in a bid to avoid clashes with Israeli forces because of lingering sensitivities over the Holocaust.

Germany and Israel are at odds over an incident involving attack on a German naval vessel patrolling the Lebanon coast as part of an international peacekeeping force, reported Reuters.

While German Defence Ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe says that six Israeli F-16 jets had flown very low over the German vessel Tuesday morning, indirectly accusing Israel of carrying out the attack on the German vessel, Israel denies that its air force planes attacked the German navy ship.

Germany's Defence Ministry confirmed that the incident did occur, but didn’t accuse Israel directly of carrying out the attack.

German daily Der Tagesspiegel reported that two German junior defence minister told a parliamentary committee that Israeli F-16 fighters had flown low over the ship, firing twice and activating infra-red countermeasures to foil rocket attacks.

A German helicopter took off from a German vessel near the Israel-Lebanon border without having coordinated this with Israel, which prompted Israel send fighter jets into the air which later forced the helicopter return to the vessel and land back onto it, Israeli army spokeswoman claimed.

The incident took place off Israel's coast, just south of the border with Lebanon, the spokeswoman told Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

The German vessels is part of a United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) which is monitoring August 14 ceasefire that put an end to Israel’s month-long war in Lebanon against Hezbollah.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701 that ended the 33-day war in Lebanon states that the UN naval force is also responsible for monitoring arms transfer to Hezbollah fighters through the coast of Lebanon.

UNIFIL has repeatedly warned Israel to stop its overflights over Lebanon as they endanger the UN mission deployed in the area. But Israel insists on ignoring the UNFIL calls, arguing that overflights are needed to monitor arms transfers to Hezbollah.

It increased its overflights over the country in recent days instead of halting them, and staged several mock raids over southern Lebanon and Beirut.

Germany, which commands the United Nations naval Interim Force (UNIFIL), has deployed eight ships and 1,000 military personnel in the area to monitor the UN-brokered ceasefire as well as arms smuggling.

Israel’s recent offensive in Lebanon killed over 1,400 innocent civilians and inflicted enormous damage to the country’s infrastructure.