His announcement came as the United States and France battled to overcome a rift on how to make a U.N. call for an end to hostilities after strong Arab demands that Israel withdraw from Lebanon.

Despite diplomatic efforts to end the crisis, Israel's security cabinet agreed to expand the ground war to try to deliver a knockout blow to Hezbollah.

In his taped address Nasrallah said "the government has announced the decision to deploy 15,000 soldiers in the south. This will help Lebanon and its friends in adapting the U.N. draft resolution to pave the way... to stop the aggression."

But the French and U.S. ambassadors to the U.N. again failed to reach accord on how to word a call for ceasefire and any Israeli pullout, diplomats said.

U.S. ambassador John Bolton acknowledged that there are "disagreements" and "areas of uncertainty," but insisted both sides were working hard to draw up a new resolution.

Officials said a Security Council vote on the resolution was now unlikely before Friday.

France's President Jacques Chirac has hinted that his country may present its own resolution if there is no agreement with the U.S.

"It seems indeed that there are American reservations towards adopting the proposal," Chirac said of the Lebanese demands for amendments to the French-U.S. text.

Beirut's demands for an Israeli withdrawal from its territory and its plan to send 15,000 Lebanese troops to take control of Hezbollah-dominated southern Lebanon have caused the new split between the transatlantic allies.

Bolton indicated however that the U.S., Israel's main ally, remains concerned about how to disarm and keep Hezbollah fighters out of positions to launch attacks on Israel.

He told reporters "everybody wants to see this (resolution) used to transform the situation in the region, which means fundamentally that we don't want Hezbollah to re-infiltrate the southern part of Lebanon."

Bolton added: "The question remains how to have an effective security presence in the southern part of Lebanon as the Israeli forces withdraw, when that becomes appropriate, and how you put that together, how you arrange that politically, how that becomes part of the overall transformation of Lebanon."

"Positions have changed; there are new circumstances unquestionably that do have an effect," said Bolton. "But it doesn't change the basic objective that we have and we are struggling now to make sure that the first resolution goes as far as we can to accomplish those objectives."

The U.S. ambassador said the Lebanese offer to deploy troops was "significant" and that it would be taken into account in the new draft, but did not say how.

France and the U.S. face strong Arab resistance to their current draft text which does not specifically call for an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon after any end to hostilities.

An Arab League delegation warned the Security Council on Tuesday there would be civil war in Lebanon if Israel's troops did not leave.

More than four weeks into conflict, the Arab ministers also criticized the delay in Security Council action.

"It is most saddening that this council stands idly by, crippled and unable to stop the bloodbath, which has become the bitter daily lot of the unarmed Lebanese people," Qatar's foreign minister told a special council debate on the conflict.

Amid calls to end the fighting, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai told public radio that plans to expand the ground offensive have been approved by the cabinet.

But in his speech, Nasrallah said that the offensive against his group had failed to harm its rocket launching capacity.

"The enemy has failed to weaken our rocket launching capacity and our guerrillas are still fighting on the frontlines," he said.

The Hezbollah leader also urged Arab residents of Haifa to leave Israel's third city which has been subjected to repeated deadly rocket fire by his fighters.

"To the Arabs of Haifa, this is a special message. I say we are sad for your martyrs and your wounded. I beseech you and ask you to leave this city.

"During the past phase, your presence and what happened to you made us hesitant to attack this city," he said in his televised address.

Israeli security forces said Hezbollah fighters fired more than 100 rockets at Israeli towns on Wednesday — raising the total since the start of the conflict to 3,333 — including several medium-range missiles that landed near the West Bank town of Jenin and south of the Israeli city of Afula.

More on Nasrallah's speech

Nasrallah also blasted the Israeli media for trying to create a rift between the Lebanese themselves.

He said Israel can perhaps reach any point in Lebanon but won't be able to hold to any territory because we will fight them hard and they will incur many losses. He said that the fighting is still going on in Aita el Shaab village (which is very close to the Israeli borders)

He called the change in the Israeli war front leadership as "significant development".

Nasrallah said that the war has not weakened Hezbollah ability to fire rockets on Israel. He also said Hezbollah was able to destroy over 60 tanks so far.

Picture: Mourners carry some of the flag-draped bodies of Lebanese citizens, killed when an Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building late Monday in the Beirut suburb of Shiyah, during a mass funeral procession in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday Aug. 9, 2006. Lebanese security officials said the death toll in an Israeli airstrike in the region three days ago had risen to at least 41, with 61 wounded
Source: Naharnet, Ya Libnan