JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said Tuesday that Israel wanted to keep key areas of the West Bank in addition to Jerusalem as part of any final agreement with the Palestinians.


Rabin, touring Jerusalem with right-wing Likud Mayor Ehud Olmert, told high school students at one stop that he did not support Israel returning all of the land captured in the 1967 Mideast War.


"I never supported and wouldn't support a withdrawal to the 1967 lines," Rabin said at the Seligsburg High School, located in a neighborhood of Jerusalem built on land captured from Jordan in 1967.


Responding to question from a 17-year-old student, Rabin said Israel's first priority was to keep all of Jerusalem and that for security reasons Israel had to retain key areas of the West Bank such as the Jordan Valley and the Gush Etzion bloc of settlements.


Rabin's remarks were in keeping with long-held policy of his Labor Party but were likely to stir Palestinian anger because they come in the wake of weeks of angry protests over Israel's confiscation of land and expansion of settlements. They came as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat arrived in Egypt for talks on the peace process with President Hosni Mubarak which are expected to focus on Palestinian complaints on the settlements issue.


Rabin reaffirmed his 1992 pledge not to build new Jewish outposts in Arab-populated areas of the West Bank but said despite Arab protests he would not stop new houses, schools or community centers from going up in existing West Bank settlements.


"I am not ready for there to be a law in Israel to forbid building houses in existing settlements or a kindergarten or a cultural center in a place where people live today," he said.


Earlier Tuesday, Israeli soldiers thwarted a pre-dawn attempt by hundreds of Jewish settlers to establish a settlement in the West Bank at the site of last week's ambush in which Palestinian militants killed the daughter of a prominent rabbi.


Fourteen who refused to leave were detained, and the trailer they brought to live in was pushed into a ditch, the army said.


As Rabin toured Jerusalem, Israel said its troops moved into Lebanon to attack a guerrilla squad after nightlong air and artillery action that left four people wounded. The Israeli command in Jerusalem said its troops rolled north of the border enclave they occupy in south Lebanon, attacked and hit a guerrilla patrol.


The communique did not spell out the specific site of the thrust nor say whether the ambushed guerrillas suffered any casualties.


The Iranian-backed Hezbollah, or Party of God, said its guerrillas repulsed an Israeli thrust toward the village of Shaqra in the central sector of the occupied enclave that Israel calls a "security zone."


"Fierce fighting raged at the outskirts of Shaqra. The enemy was forced to retreat after suffering a number of casualties," said a Hezbollah communique. It made no mention of guerrilla casualties.


It was the first time in years that the Israelis operated north of the enclave they carved out in 1985 to shield Israel's northern towns from cross-border guerrilla forays.


The thrust was reported as Israeli artillery blasted suspected guerrilla bases and helicopter gunships strafed infiltration trails overnight to avenge new raids. Security sources said Tuesday that four people were wounded.