HEZBOLLAH chief Hassan Nasrallah said overnight the Shiite militia still had a presence in south Lebanon one month after a UN-brokered ceasefire brought an end to hostilities with Israel. "The resistance is present south of the Litani River and in the whole south of Lebanon," Nasrallah said in the second part of an interview with Al-Jazeera television.

In the first part, broadcast yesterday by the satellite channel, he heaped scorn on Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora for receiving British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Beirut, saying the move was aimed at provoking and humiliating his Shiite militant group.

"We regret that Israeli officials lie to their people by saying they have ousted Hezbollah from south Lebanon and that they will not let it return," he said in the overnight broadcast.

"We are present at the border. Before July 12 (when the Israeli offensive began) we publicly set up surveillance posts which we have dismantled... but nobody can prevent us from being present on our territory or from defending our territory, our honour and our homeland," he said.

Following the August 14 UN-brokered ceasefire that came after more than a month of fighting, the Lebanese army began deploying soldiers in the south of the country to retake control of a region in which it had no presence for many years.

A total of 15,000 Lebanese soldiers will be deployed in south Lebanon under UN Security Council Resolution 1701, supported by up to 15,000 UN peacekeepers of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), expanded from its 2000-strong pre-war complement.

In his interview, Nasrallah repeated that Hezbollah had won "a strategic and historic victory" over Israeli forces, whose objective, he said, had been to crush the militant group.

On Tuesday, Nasrallah said Mr Siniora and his political allies had shown little regard for his group and those who died during the war by agreeing to meet with Mr Blair.

"The first mistake committed by the prime minister and the political forces that are with him is that they behaved in an unethical and inhuman way toward the feelings of the people who were killed, destroyed and displaced," he told the Qatar-based Arab broadcaster.

Nasrallah said Mr Blair had been a "partner in the killing" of more than 1200 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, during the 34-day Israeli onslaught.

Mr Blair briefly visited Beirut on Tuesday and was met with a storm of protest by the Shiite community angered by Britain's stand, which was seen as favouring Israel during the conflict.

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