"The mock raids came only hours after U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen told the Security Council that the Lebanese government had reported that arms were being smuggled into Lebanon from Syria since the end of the 34-day Israel-Hezbollah war."


"Geir Pederson, personal representative in Lebanon of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, expressed concern about the overflights that "constitute a breach of Lebanese sovereignty" and of the U.N. resolution that ended the war.

But Israel contends the flights must continue because arms are still smuggled to Hezbollah, the group has armed personnel in south Lebanon, and the two soldiers whose capture by guerrillas sparked the Israeli offensive have not been released, said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev.

"In the absence of the implementation of these obligations, Israel is forced to continue intelligence flights over Lebanon to monitor these infringements. If there's not a mechanism to prevent illicit arms transfers, we have to monitor arms transfers. If the Hezbollah presence is not removed, there is a need to observe that presence," he said.

American and European officials have stepped up their demands for Hezbollah to disarm in accordance to the U.N.-brokered cease-fire, but the militant group has repeatedly refused to lay down its arms. The refusal has caused internal struggles as the Lebanese army tries to take control of the south, which has been under Hezbollah's control for decades.

Neither an increased U.N. peacekeeping mission, which currently numbers about 7,300, nor some 15,000 Lebanese troops patrolling a buffer zone in south Lebanon have the mandate or the political will to take Hezbollah's weapons by force.

Nasrallah said in a three-hour taped TV interview Tuesday night that the guerrilla group now has some 33,000 rockets and warned that any attempts by an international force to disarm it would transform Lebanon into another Iraq or Afghanistan.

"The resistance in Lebanon is strong, cohesive, able and ready, and they will not be able to undermine it no matter what the challenges are," he said during the interview on Hezbollah's TV station Al-Manar."