Two people have been killed and a Lebanese intelligence officer has been seriously injured by a bomb near the southern city of Sidon in an apparent assassination attempt.

Security officials said that Lieutenant-Colonel Samir Shehade from the interior ministry's intelligence branch was critically injured by a remote-controlled bomb which went off near his car in the village of Rmaila near the southern port city of Sidon on Tuesday morning.

Police said one of the two men killed was a soldier, the other a civilian.

The security officials said the roadside bomb was detonated as Shehade's convoy traveled on a road between two bridges.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

Aljazeera reported that Shehade had been taken to hospital in Sidon.

Shehade was among the officers involved in Lebanon's investigation in the February 2005 assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister.

The explosion came 10 days before Serge Brammertz, the UN chief investigator, is due to submit a report to the UN security council updating his findings into the death of al-Hariri.

No group has come forward to say it carried out the attack.