Hezbollah prepares for victory rally

Hundreds of thousands of Hezbollah supporters are expected in Beirut for a rally to celebrate the group's "divine victory" over Israel.

The rally on Friday, called for by the group's leader Hassan Nasrallah, will be held in the Shia Muslim movement's stronghold in the south of the city that was flattened by Israeli bombing during the recent 34-day war.

The event could see Nasrallah appear in public for the first time since a news conference on July 12 when he announced the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah fighters, an act which led to the Israeli attacks.

Supporters are expected from across Lebanon with many setting off for the capital on Thursday by car and on foot from Shia villages in the south of the country, an area badly damaged in the Israeli offensive.

Ali Shalghub, heading north from Qana on a trek to Beirut of 100km that would take two days, said: "However much we lost in terms of martyrs and destruction of houses, we remain steadfast."

Alongside him walked people waving Hezbollah flags and banners and wearing yellow T-shirts bearing the group's slogans.

The rally had been expected to coincide with the final withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from southern Lebanon, but Israel's army chief said on Wednesday there were "a few issues to be wrapped up" before the pullout could be completed.

Israeli forces have been gradually pulling out from territory they captured in fighting which killed nearly 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis.

Hezbollah has declared victory in the war, during which it fired nearly 4,000 rockets into northern Israel.

Nasrallah said on the group's Al-Manar Television: "I call on you all to participate in a victory rally, your victory ... in the southern suburb, the suburb of honour, glory, faith, steadfastness and victory for the whole country.

"Let us renew our covenant and declare our joy at the divine victory to the whole world."

Under the terms of a truce which ended the fighting last month, UN and Lebanese army forces are deploying in the south to monitor the ceasefire and try to assert the authority of the Beirut government.

But Nasrallah has said his fighters remain on the border with Israel and Hezbollah has dismissed demands that it disarm.

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, declined to say if the Hezbollah leader would be attacked if he appeared at the rally.

"And you think, that if he was, I would tell you - and tell him?" he told Israel's Channel 10 television on Thursday.