By LAURIE COPANS
The Associated Press
Friday, June 2, 2006; 3:14 PM

JERUSALEM -- Three Egyptian security officers crossed into Israel and traded fire with troops there Friday in an exchange that killed two of the Egyptians. Israeli officials called the attack a "rogue" incident that would not tarnish their relations.

The attack came two days before Israeli and Egyptian leaders were to meet for the first time in more than a year in an effort to jumpstart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Essam el-Sheik, the head of Egyptian police in the border area, said it wasn't clear why the Egyptian security officers had crossed into Israel. Both sides said the other had shot first.

A military official from Israel's Southern Command said attackers fired on an Israeli hilltop military post around 6 a.m. The Israeli forces identified three armed men and returned fire, he said. Two were hit and the third fled, he said.

Israeli troops discovered the two bodies dressed in Egyptian security force uniforms and carrying assault rifles, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk on the record. Dozens of bullet casings lay nearby, the official said.

Maj. Assaf Shatzkin, deputy commander of the armored battalion involved in the shooting, told Channel 2 television that it was "a case of two terrorists wearing the uniform of a foreign army, armed with radios and Kalashnikov (assault rifles), who without a doubt crossed the border to attack forces in the field."

Egyptian police said three Egyptian security personnel exchanged fire with the Israeli soldiers after crossing into Israel, and that two of the Egyptians were killed.

El-Sheik said Israeli troops had fired first.

Egypt also disagreed with the Israeli statement that the security officers fell inside Israel: the Egyptian Interior Ministry said the two bodies were found in Egypt, 200 yards from the Israeli border.

The Israeli Southern Command official said a fence and a border marker clearly demarcated the boundary, and he characterized the incident as rogue activity.

The exchange of fire "doesn't characterize our relations with the Egyptians," he said. "We have good relations with them and will continue to cooperate with them."

The head of the Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant, went to the scene to conduct a preliminary investigation, and met with Egyptian officials, the military said.

Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979, and their border is usually quiet, except for occasional drug smuggling into Israel.

But in November 2004, Israeli troops killed three Egyptian police along the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip, having mistaken them for Palestinian militants. Last year, Egyptian security officers began policing the border with Gaza.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak are to meet in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik to discuss ways to renew long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks at a time when Hamas militants opposed to Israel's existence rule the Palestinian Authority.

It will be the first meeting between Israeli and Egyptian leaders since then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with Mubarak in Sharm el-Sheik to announce an Israeli-Palestinian truce.