Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah briefly came out of hiding yesterday to plant a tree as part of his Shiite militant party’s campaign to encourage the Lebanese to go green.

Mr Nasrallah, who was last seen in public in July 2008, was shown on Hizbollah’s Al-Manar television station digging a hole and planting a tree outside his home in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

The building was destroyed by air raids during Hizbollah’s 2006 war with Israel.

Mr Nasrallah, who was accompanied by the agriculture minister for the ceremony, said in a statement it was important for him to plant the tree at that location.

He urged all Lebanese to follow his example and plant trees outside their homes.

Hizbollah has led a campaign to plant one million trees in Lebanon and Mr Nasrallah’s tree was the millionth.

The party is blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by the United States.