Defense Minister Amir Peretz on Thursday selected the Rafael anti-missile defense system, an Israeli model designed to intercept short-range missiles such as Katyusha and Qassam rockets.

Peretz convened a meeting Thursday with senior officials from the defense ministry along with the Israel Defense Forces' top echelon for a final discussion regarding the selection of an anti-missile defense system.

At the meeting, a special committee presented its findings regarding four such defense systems available to Peretz. The committee rated the four systems in categories such as their rate of development and their cost.

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Peretz finally selected the Rafael "iron cap" defense system, which is meant to block missiles with a range of up to several dozens of kilometers.

The system, expected to be ready for deployment in 2009, is designed to detect incoming Katyusha or homemade Palestinian rockets and fire miniature missiles to destroy them mid-air, Israeli security sources said.

Earlier, it had been decided that Rafael would cooperate with the American weapons company Raytheon in the development of a system called "magic wand," meant to protect Israel from mid-range missiles.

The Hezbollah guerilla group pelted Israel with nearly 4,000 rockets, many of them Katyushas, during the war last summer. Meanwhile, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip regularly fire Qassam rockets at western Negev communities.