The remarks by Mahmoud Komati, deputy head of Hezbollah's political bureau, were the first time the Shiite Muslim group has publicly acknowledged a direct link between weapons possession and its drive for more power.

Hezbollah's disarmament is a top demand of the March 14th alliance . The UN cease-fire resolution that ended the Hezbollah-Israel war in August also calls for the group's eventual disarmament.

Defending the borders

The Shiite group, backed by Iran and Syria and its allies in the Lebanese government, insists it will lay down its arms only when Lebanon has a strong enough government and army to defend its borders with Israel.

Hezbollah and its allies have staged massive protests in recent weeks to demand more than one-third the seats in the Cabinet, enough to give them veto power over key decisions.

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and his anti-Syrian supporters have rejected Hezbollah's demands, calling the campaign a Syrian-backed coup.

Komati said Hezbollah started asking for greater share in the government only after the July-August war with Israel and that one of the key reasons was to prevent the government from forcing it to disarm.

"Now we are demanding it (greater government share), because our experience during the war and the performance of the government has made us unsure. On several occasions they pressured us to lay down our weapons while we were fighting a war," said Komati.

"So after the war, we had no choice but to demand this guarantee that would give us legal and constitutional strength. If we take the one-third plus one, the government will not be able to impose its decision on us."

Rival factions

Holding just over a third of the seats would allow Hezbollah and its allies to bring down the Cabinet if it intended to pass a decision they oppose.

In the past week, Arab League mediators managed to get the two sides to agree on the outlines of a national unity Cabinet, but the rival factions failed to bridge other differences that threaten to scuttle the deal.

The Cedar Revolution March 14 alliance views Hezbollah arms as a liability for Lebanon. They accused Hezbollah of starting the war with Israel which left Lebanon with over 1200 dead, mostly civilians , 5000 wounded and over a million displaced...Lebanon's infrastructure was also left in ruins...almost all the bridges were destroyed. The total cost of the war to Lebanon will exceed 15 billion US Dollars according to the UN.

The March 14 alliance also say that Hezbollah has made the state weak by acting as a "state within a state " , serving the interests of Iran and Syria instead of the national interest of the country.

Sources: Ya Libnan, AP