Hezbollah called on the Lebanese to help "bury" a United Nations resolution demanding the Islamic group disarm and its Syrian backers quit Lebanon, and predicted it would not succeed without their support.

The Shi'ite Muslim group's remarks late on Thursday coincided with a visit to Lebanon and Syria by U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, charged with overseeing resolution 1559 which has stoked controversy in the country as May elections approach.

"To those who say: 'What are we to do about the international resolution 1559?' we say: 'Come, let's bury 1559 together," Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Kassem told followers in Hezbollah's southern Beirut stronghold.

"Say with us: God's curse on this international resolution. If we do not bother with it, it will fall by itself, because America, Israel and France and those behind them cannot enforce it directly, they need hands.

"Stop the hands from helping them and it will fall," Kassem told thousands of Shi'ite Muslims gathered to commemorate Ashura, which marks the death of the prophet's grandson Imam Hussein more than 13 centuries ago.

Debate over Syria's 14,000 troops, pervasive security services and political grip on its tiny neighbor has grown louder in recent weeks. Some have seized on the U.N. resolution; others consider it unwarranted foreign interference.

Leading opposition figure Walid Jumblatt cautiously supported parts of it on Thursday. Hezbollah should disarm, he said, but only after Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, a disputed border area claimed by Lebanon, had been "liberated."

He said the guerrillas did a good job in helping force Israeli forces out of southern Lebanon in 2000 after a 22-year occupation, but dialogue was now needed to transform Hezbollah into a purely political party.

Kassem responded with sarcasm to Jumblatt's comments.

Many Lebanese speak of "protecting the Islamic resistance," as Iranian and Syrian-backed Hezbollah is commonly known in Lebanon, but only for as long as they see as strictly necessary.

"And what they mean by protection is for it to hand over its weapons without quarrelling, and that they will provide an ordinary life and different jobs and it will have some political role to distract it.

"We don't need that kind of protection from anyone, and consider it an insult."

Roed-Larsen said on Friday talks with Syrian and Lebanese leaders on how to implement the U.N. resolution had gone well.

"This conversation has been very helpful to me and we have agreed to continue our dialogue," he told reporters. He said talks with opposition, religious and other figures were friendly and frank. (With Reuters).