By Lin Noueihed, BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s declaration that Hizbollah is a resistance movement was a compromise aimed at ending a political crisis without provoking a showdown with the U.N. Security Council which demands the guerrilla group disarm.Five Shi’ite ministers had launched a government boycott on December 12, paralysing the country and sparking a slanging match between politicians for and against Hizbollah keeping its arms.

Talks to secure their return had faltered over a Shi’ite demand that the cabinet explicitly state that Hizbollah was not a militia but an anti-Israeli resistance group. Hizbollah has been under pressure to lay down its weapons since the U.N. Security Council demanded 16 months ago that foreign troops leave Lebanon and all militias there disarm. Pro-Syrian Hizbollah and Amal, Lebanon’s main Shi’ite parties, announced an end to the seven-week government boycott on Thursday after Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told parliament that Hizbollah had always been considered a national resistance organisation. He did not use the word militia.Political sources read Siniora’s words as a way to coax Shi’ite parties to rejoin the government, while not rejecting the U.N. resolution 1559 on militia disarmament.

"This exit may have solved the boycott crisis but the question is has it solved the government crisis?" asked political commentator Rafik Khoury in Al-Anwar newspaper.

"What about fundamental disputes over basic issues linked to the regional and international battle taking place in Lebanon and around it. Is the problem of resolution 1559 solved?"

Hizbollah, whose attacks helped end Israel’s 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000, was the only Lebanese group to keep its arms after the 1975-1990 civil war.

Syrian troops ended a 29-year military presence in Lebanon last year under international pressure and local protest following former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri’s murder.

The Security Council renewed pressure on Lebanon last month to disarm Hizbollah in line with the resolution.

The United States has long considered Hizbollah a terrorist group and its ally, Syria, a state sponsor of terrorism.

But the Lebanese remain divided over whether Hizbollah should keep its arms now that all foreign armies are gone.

Siniora’s assertion that "we have never called and will never call the resistance by any other name" does not effectively change the government’s position.

The government, the first to include Hizbollah ministers, had described the guerrilla group as a resistance movement in the mission statement issued after its formation in July.

But by allowing the Shi’ite parties to return to the cabinet, Siniora’s comments could reignite domestic debate over Hizbollah’s arms. The group has invited such a debate.