MARJAYOUN, Lebanon, May 26 (AFP) - A member of the South Lebanon Army was killed and five wounded by Hezbollah guerrillas Wednesday amid growing signs of a possible pullback by the increasingly demoralized Israeli-allied militia. The latest SLA casualties came as reports in Israel and Lebanon indicated that Israel was preparing to pull its overstretched militia ally back from Jezzine, a largely Christian town it holds north of the Israeli-occupied border strip, as a practice run for a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. An SLA spokesman said one militiaman was killed and two wounded when a Hezbollah rocket hit their vehicle in the early hours near the village of Bayyada. The spokesman said the attack was one of at least 10 Hezbollah operations overnight in which three other SLA men were also wounded. Two Hezbollah fighters were killed in the fighting, the Shiite Moslem group said in Beirut. The fresh casualties bring the SLA's losses so far this year to seven killed and 31 wounded, according to an AFP toll. They came as the Tel Aviv daily Haaretz reported that Israel was preparing to order a pullback by the SLA from its outpost in Jezzine as part of Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak's plans to end Israel's 21-year occupation of south Lebanon within a year. Haaretz said Israel and Lebanon had held indirect talks on the planned withdrawal although Lebanese officials swiftly denied the report. "There are no direct or indirect contacts between Lebanon and Israel over a pullback from Jezzine," a government official told AFP in Beirut. The talks, which a defence source said had gone into "high gear," are being overseen by Israel's outgoing defence minister, Moshe Arens, but have the blessing of the new prime minister, Haaretz said. Barak, who defeated incumbent prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in May 17 elections, has pledged to withdraw Israeli troops from Lebanon within a year as part of a regional peace effort also involving Syria. Haaretz said a preliminary withdrawal from Jezzine would test the Lebanese government's willingness to deploy its own army in the zone and prevent it from being used by Hezbollah as a staging ground for attacks on Israeli targets. The exercise could amount to a warmup for a full Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon, where Israel has maintained a troop presence since 1978 with the declared aim of preventing cross-border attacks by Palestinian or Islamic guerrillas. Asked about rumours of the SLA withdrawal from Jezzine, Lebanese Prime Minister Selim Hoss told AFP: "Let Israel withdraw from Lebanon and the Lebanese government will take the necessary steps." Another Lebanese official said the government was "prepared to fill any vacuum" left by Israeli or SLA pullbacks. Tuesday a Lebanese news agency reported that a former government minister from the Jezzine area, Edmond Rizk, had informed Hoss that the SLA was already preparing to leave the area. "SLA members have been informed that if they choose to remain with their families, they do so at their own risk," Rizk was quoted as saying. Jezzine residents said SLA officials, militiamen and their families have already packed their belongings and were awaiting orders to pull back into the Israeli-occupied border zone. A Jezzine notable said SLA commander Antoine Lahad was planning a key visit to the town in the next few days. On Sunday Israeli military sources reported that SLA morale was so bad that the militia had refused to reoccupy a position inside the border strip following a Hezbollah attack.  