Hezbollah denies Israeli rocket claims

DUBAI, May 6 (Reuters) Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in remarks aired today, rejected Israeli charges that a former Israeli-Arab lawmaker helped the Lebanese group aim rockets at targets in Israel during last year's war.

''All that is said about his ties to Hezbollah and providing information to Hezbollah is absolutely not true,'' Nasrallah said, referring to Azmi Bishara, who has been accused of treason by Israeli police.

''This is a great injustice towards this man and part of a settling of scores,'' Nasrallah told Iran's al-Alam television.

Bishara, who resigned his post in March and has left Israel, could face a maximum life sentence if found guilty. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Bishara, who headed an anti-Zionist party, has denied having direct contact with Hezbollah, which Israel considers an enemy.

Israeli police have said Bishara received hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for providing Hezbollah with locations of strategic targets in Israel before and during last year's 34-day war in which the group fired more than 4,000 rockets.

Bishara's Balad party holds three of the 120 seats in the Israeli parliament. Its call for Israel to cease being defined as a Jewish state and for Palestinians to achieve statehood in the West Bank and Gaza Strip resonates with many Israeli Arabs, who complain of discrimination by the Jewish majority.

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