Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said today Lebanon rejects a draft UN Security Council resolution to end the fighting because it would allow Israeli forces to remain on Lebanese soil.
Mr Berri said the draft US-French resolution had ignored a seven-point plan presented by the government that calls for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the return of all displaced civilians among other things.
"Lebanon and all of Lebanon rejects any resolution that is outside these seven points," he told a news conference.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described a draft UN ceasefire resolution as a first step to ending the violence in the Middle East — but warned said it cannot solve the problems in Lebanon.
Ms Rice said the Lebanese government must extend its authority into the south so the militant Islamic group Hezbollah does not have control. She said the international community must help Lebanese forces be successful.
But Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa also criticised the resolution, saying it had failed to call directly for an immediate ceasefire.
"The proposal calls for stopping hostile operations and not a ceasefire. This constitutes a defect in the Security Council, which should adopt a clear position toward military actions," Mr Moussa said after meeting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The draft US-French resolution calls for a "full cessation of hostilities based upon ... the immediate cessation by Hizbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations".
It implicitly gives Israel the right to pursue "defensive" military operations.
Meanwhile Syria's foreign minister offered today to join Hizbollah and said his country's army had standing orders to respond immediately to any Israeli attacks.
"If you wish, I'm ready to be a soldier at the disposal of (Hizbollah chief) Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah," Walid Mouallem told reporters on arrival in Lebanon in a symbolic gesture.
"Syria is readying itself and doesn't hide its (military) readiness. We will respond to any Israeli aggression immediately," he added.
Mr Mouallem said later after talks with President Emile Lahoud: "If Israel attacks Syria by any means, on the ground, in the air, our leadership ordered the armed forces to reply immediately."
Mouallem, the first senior Syrian official to visit Lebanon since Syria ended three decades of military presence in April Last year, criticised a US-French draft of a UN Security Council resolution to end the war.