BEIRUT (AFP) – Shiite militant group Hezbollah said it was seeking cabinet posts for the first time in the new Lebanese government, in a move likely to complicate UN demands for its disarmament. The announcement followed the collapse of prime minister designate Fuad Siniora’s efforts to bring in the party of firebrand Christian former general Michel Aoun to a new coalition.”It has become our right to participate directly and not just through our allies, in the decision-making process,” said Mohammed Raad, head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, which holds 14 of the legislature’s 128 seats.Fellow Hezbollah MP Mohammed Fneish said the movement, which was involved in deadly clashes with Israeli troops in a disputed border zone just last week, was seeking “two cabinet posts”.Hezbollah competed for last month’s elections in alliance with rival Shiite faction Amal on a single-issue ticket opposing disarmament of its military wing in compliance with Resolution 1559 passed by the UN Security Council last September.The Future Movement of the prime minister designate — led by Saad Hariri, a Sunni Muslim — formed some electoral deals with Hezbollah and spoke out during the campaign against disarming the “resistance”.Hezbollah’s push to join the government came after Siniora abandoned efforts to woo Aoun, whose Free Patriotic Movement was the only major faction to advocate compliance with Resolution 1559, albeit through negotiations with the militant group.

DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Syrian forces killed an Arab Muslim militant among a group trying to cross the border into Lebanon and arrested at least 34 others, the official Syrian news agency SANA said on Sunday.It said two soldiers were also killed in the clash. It did not say when the incident happened.SANA said members of the group trying to infiltrate were arrested, but it did not say how many. It also said that further investigations led to the arrest of 34 non-Syrian militants and finding passports and other documents in a house.A Lebanese security source said the slain militant was an Algerian and those arrested were from Lebanon and Algeria.Al Jazeera television quoted security sources in Damascus as saying that the militant was a Tunisian named Majdi bin Mohammed bin Said al-Zreibi.Lebanon’s al-Manar television station, mouthpiece of the Hizbollah guerrilla group, said the militants were on their way from Iraq to Lebanon.It said the clash happened overnight on the outskirts of the Syrian city of Homs near Lebanon’s northeastern borders.”Syrian security forces killed the militant … who holds an Arab nationality in an armed clash as he tried to leave the border to Lebanon illegally along with members of a radical group that he leads,” SANA said.

BEIRUT, Lebanon – Prime Minister-designate Fuad Saniora on Friday got down to trying to form Lebanon’s first government without Syrian influence in three decades. Saniora consulted former prime ministers and legislators a day after President Emile Lahoud asked him to form a Cabinet. He was given the position after a record number of lawmakers

By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press Writer, BEIRUT, Lebanon – A booby-trapped car exploded near a hotel south of the capital, seriously injuring one woman, security officials said Friday. A hand grenade placed between the door and the driver’s seat detonated when the woman opened the door of the car, which was parked near the Lebanon […]

WASHINGTON — The United States froze yesterday the US assets of Syria’s interior minister and a second official, accusing them of leading military and security operations in Lebanon, as the Bush administration increased its pressure on Syria. The Treasury Department said Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan and Rustum Ghazali, identified as the chief of Syrian […]