Olmert says UN, Lebanese army curbing Hezbollah

JERUSALEM, Feb 21 (Reuters) Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today rebuffed assessments Hezbollah had recovered from last year's war with Israel, saying UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese army were keeping the guerrilla group in check.

Olmert, whose popularity plummeted amid Israeli perceptions that the war undermined national security by failing to crush Hezbollah, said that though the Shi'ite militia was rearming, it was finding it hard to regroup in its former border strongholds.

''When they try to surface now they are disarmed and arrested by the international force and the Lebanese force,'' Olmert told foreign reporters. He said it was now ''almost impossible'' for Hezbollah to function in its heartland, southern Lebanon.

''I am not certain that they have any appetite to fight with Israel again,'' Olmert said.

The UN peacekeeper force in south Lebanon, UNIFIL, was expanded as part of an August 14 truce between Israel and Hezbollah. That deal also prompted the moderate Lebanese government to post troops along the frontier.

Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted high-ranking Israeli defence officials as saying that Hezbollah guerrillas, disguised as civilians, have been trying to redeploy at a network of border bunkers that were overrun during the war.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said this month the group is smuggling in missiles to replace the thousands it launched or lost to Israeli air strikes during the 34 days of fighting, and that some arms have been reaching ''the front''.

''The United Nations should stop the arms smuggling to Hezbollah and, in our opinion, not enough is being done,'' Olmert's most senior deputy, Shimon Peres, told Yedioth.

UNIFIL says its mandate is to ensure Hezbollah does not have a military presence south of the Litani river. UNIFIL is not authorised to monitor for arms smuggling by Hezbollah.

Israel and the United States say Syria and Iran supply Hezbollah with weapons, training and money. Syria and Iran say their support for their Lebanese proxy is purely political.

Lebanese Defence Minister Elias al-Murr said recently the Lebanese army was closely monitoring the border with Syria and that no weapons were going through there.

There have been mounting tensions between Israeli forces and Lebanon's border garrison. Troops from both sides exchanged fire on February 8 after Israel ordered a probe for explosives on the frontier. No one was hurt.

Today, the Lebanese army said it fired at an Israeli spy drone over south Lebanon. Israel has kept up such overflights since the war, defying international censure. Israel says the flights are needed to monitor Hezbollah movements.

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