UNITED NATIONS, July 22: The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, the New York Times reported on Saturday quoting American officials.

The decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made with relatively little debate within Bush administration, the officials said. Its disclosure threatens to anger Arab governments and others because of the appearance that the United States is actively aiding the Israeli bombing campaign in a way that could be compared to Iran’s efforts to arm and resupply Hezbollah, the newspaper said.

The munitions that the United States is sending to Israel are part of a multimillion-dollar arms sale package approved last year that Israel is able to draw on as needed, the officials said.

The new American arms shipment to Israel has not been announced publicly, and the officials who described the administration’s decision to rush the munitions to Israel would discuss it only after being promised anonymity.

The officials included employees of two government agencies, and one described the shipment as just one example of a broad array of armaments that the United States has long provided Israel.

David Siegel, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, said: “We have been using precision-guided munitions in order to neutralise the military capabilities of Hezbollah and to minimize harm to civilians. As a rule, however, we do not comment on Israel’s defence acquisitions.”