Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah told Al Jazeera television that Syria, which along with Iran backs the Shi'ite guerrilla group, threatened to send troops "even into Lebanese territory to tackle Israeli forces".

"Syria informed the enemy's government through mediators that should any ground troops advance into Arqoub ... Syria would not stand to watch and would engage," Nasrallah said in an interview aired on Monday.

The war erupted after Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12, 2006. About 1200 Lebanese and 157 Israelis were killed in a 34-day conflict.

Nasrallah did not elucidate on the source of the information. But he said Damascus did not discuss any such plans with his group during the war and Israel appeared to have heeded the warning.

"The Israelis took this message seriously ... No ground advance took place in that (area) and not a single Israeli soldier advanced there," Nasrallah said.

He added that Hezbollah did not ask Syria or any other country to enter the war on its side: "This was not an intention or a wish on our part and we did not see any interest in that."

Peace talks between Syria and Israel collapsed in 2000 over Damascus' demand that the Jewish state return the Golan Heights, a mountainous plateau seized by Israel in 1967.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has repeatedly expressed interest in resuming talks, but Israel says Syria's continued support for Hezbollah is too great a stumbling block.

Israel and the United States accuse Syria and Iran of arming, training and funding Hezbollah. Syria and Iran say their support to the Shi'ite anti-Israel faction is purely political.

Lebanese security and political sources said in May that Hezbollah had replenished its rocket arsenal and received improved anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles from Iran via Syria since a UN-backed truce halted hostilities in August.

The Beirut government says it has no proof of arms transfers from Syria since August.

Israel had no intention to attack Syria
According to Israeli sources , Israel had no intention to attack Syria during the Lebanon war. Israel according to these sources regards the Assad regime in Syria as its best guarantee for its peace and therefore has no interest in undermining it nor changing it. On the contrary these sources said, Israel was concerned that Hezbollah would drag Syria into the war and upset the special Syrian Israeli .
Syria and Israel were having secret negotiations thru a Syrian American when the war erupted and these negotiations were interrupted , but restarted later in the year , when he returned to Israel and addressed the Knesset.

Picture: Picture: Ibrahim ('Abe') Soleiman, a Syrian American businessman who held secret peace talks with Alon Liel, a former director general of Israel's foreign ministry. The talks were interrupted during the summer war in Lebanon.

Sources: REUTERS, Ya Libnan