Lebanon foils attack on Hezbollah

Security officials are reported to have said the suspects planned to attack Hassan Nasrallah during the next round of national dialogue talks.

Brig Saleh Suleiman said the plot was in the planning stage and had not reached "the phase of implementation".

Press reports say the suspects are Lebanese and Palestinian.

The arrests occurred last week.

Security officials said their case had been referred to a military magistrate, and that some of the suspects were related by marriage.

National dialogue talks

The As-Safir newspaper reported that military intelligence had arrested nine members of the plot last week after they were observed acting suspiciously near Hezbollah's headquarters in the southern Beirut district of Haret Horeik.

The paper said the suspects planned to fire armour-piercing rockets at Mr Nasrallah's car. The paper also reported that rockets for the attack had been seized.

The Associated Press has reported Brig Suleiman as saying that the details reported by As-Safir were correct, but he would not elaborate.

Lebanese leaders have been holding intermittent national dialogue talks since early March 2006. The talks are the first meeting of all key factions since the civil war ended.

One of the most contentious issues in the talks is the disarmament of Hezbollah, as demanded by the UN Security Council resolution 1559.