No army can disarm Hizbollah - Nasrallah

Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah yesterday rejected international calls to disarm his Lebanese guerrillas and told a huge "victory" rally they still had more than 20,000 rockets after a month of war with Israel.

Speaking to a sea of followers at a "divine victory" rally in south Beirut, Nasrallah said Hizbollah had emerged stronger from a conflict in which Israel declared it had destroyed most of the Shi'ite Muslim group's arsenal.

"The resistance today, pay attention... has more than 20,000 rockets," he told hundreds of thousands of cheering supporters in his first public appearance since the war broke out in July.

"(It) has recovered all its organisational and military capabilities...it is stronger than it was before July 12."

Nasrallah warned the reinforced UN peacekeepers who are deploying in southern Lebanon as Israeli forces withdraw not to seek confrontation with Hizbollah.

"Your mission is not to spy on Hizbollah or to disarm the resistance," he told a crowd packed into the Shi'ite Muslim suburbs which were heavily bombed in the 34-day war. "...There is no army in the world that can (force us) to drop our weapons from our hands, from our grip," he declared.

Nasrallah's estimate of Hizbollah's retained arsenal is five times greater than the total number it fired into Israel during the war, and higher than any previous figure he has given.

He also said measures to stop Hizbollah rearming, including international forces patrolling the Lebanese coast and tighter security on the border with Lebanon, would have little impact.

"I say to them: blockade the borders and the seas and the skies - this will not weaken the will of the resistance or the weapons of the resistance," he said.

The huge turnout in a country of just four million was a gesture of defiance to Israel but also marked a challenge to the US-backed government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

Hizbollah has two ministers in the cabinet, but most cabinet members oppose the group's alliances with Syria and Iran.

Nasrallah called for a change of government in Lebanon and slammed Arab leaders for failing to defend the Lebanese people.

"The current government is unable to protect Lebanon, or to reconstruct Lebanon or to unify Lebanon," he said.