JERUSALEM, Jan. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Israel has decided not to build a barrier wall that would split a village straddling the Israel-Lebanon border, but instead will increase security there, NationalmSecurity Adviser Giora Eiland said Wednesday.

    According to local newspaper Ha'aretz, cabinet ministers believed building a wall inside the Ghajar village would further harm Israel 's already tense relations with Syria and Lebanon and violate an agreement with the United Nations.

    "We're not going to divide the village in half with a wall and we will improve the security situation and the services there," Eiland said.

    Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday accepted the defense establishment recommendation to preserve the status quo in Ghajar.

    Following its troop withdrawal from southern Lebanon in mid-2000, Ghajar was left straddling the international border with openings into both Israel and Lebanon.

    The option to build a fence traversing the international borderin the middle of the village was reported on Monday, and evoked a lot of contention on the part of Ghajar's residents.

    The plan suggested that the residents living in the northern half of the village -- who are Israeli citizens in spite of living in a region that formally belongs to Lebanon -- would be relocated to the southern half and be appropriately compensated, or face the loss of their Israeli citizenship.

    However, most Ghajar residents have objected to the plan, under which alternative land would have to be found to resettle the evacuees. Enditem