Hizbollah chief slams Blair as murderer on Jazeera

DUBAI, Sep, 12 (Reuters) Hizbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said British Prime Minister Tony Blair participated in the killing of Lebanese by not doing enough to stop Israel's war in Lebanon and lashed out at the government for welcoming him.

''This Tony Blair is an associate in the murdering,'' Nasrallah told Al Jazeera television in remarks aired today.

He critisised Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora for giving Blair a warm welcome in the country yesterday.

''You bring him home to me and to my family and you give a great reception?'' he said. ''If there was an invitation made for Tony Bair to visit then this is a national disaster.'' Nasrallah said his group has been practicing self-restraint against what he described as back-stabbing and provocation by some politicians.

Hundreds of Lebanese protested against Blair's visit to Beirut on Monday, accusing him of backing Israel's 34-day war with Hizbollah guerrillas.

During the war, Blair angered many Lebanese by refusing to call for an early halt to fighting, which wreaked destruction on Lebanon and cost the lives of nearly 1,200 people there, mostly civilians, as well as 157 Israelis, mainly soldiers.

''Do not these (Lebanese officials) have feelings, calculations, brain or heart. Are people made of stone in Lebanon, is this country vacant of people are we only hotels, concrete, roads and bridges.'' A U.N. resolution halted the fighting in Lebanon by providing for an expansion of a U.N. peacekeeping force to police the south alongside Lebanese army troops.

Reuters SAM DB2037