BEIRUT, Lebanon - On the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Israel Defense Forces withdrawal from Lebanon, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud vowed Tuesday to recover a disputed border area from Israeli hands and said the conflict with Israel will continue until there was peace in the Middle East

"Lebanon has been the only Arab country ever to drive Israeli occupation forces out of its territory and the only Arab country to regain its legitimate territorial rights without making any compromise or concessions," Lahoud said in a statement.

"Lebanon would continue its legitimate struggle with Israel until a global, comprehensive and just peace is reached in the Middle East region," he said.

Lebanon is preparing to commemorate on Wednesday the fifth anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon with a national holiday.

Schools, universities, banks, ministries and public institutions will be closed on May 25, marked as the day after IDF troops withdrew from a border area in southern Lebanon, ending 18 years of military occupation.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerilla organization has pledged to continue its attacks on IDF troops in the disputed Shabaa Farms area, where the borders of Lebanon, Syria and Israel meet.

Hezbollah and the IDF periodically clash across the border area, which Lebanon claims, but the United Nations says is part of Syria, occupied by Israel in 1967.

Lahoud, who supports Hezbollah but has kept his army away from the border and a direct confrontation with Israel, reaffirmed his government's policy on the Shabaa Farms, saying Tuesday he was "determined to liberate the remaining occupied Shabaa Farms from Israeli occupation."

On Saturday, Hezbollah guerrillas attacked IDF troops in the Shabaa Farms after the IDF fired on what it said was a Lebanese shepherd suspected of trying to cross the border.

Hezbollah, labeled a terrorist group by the United States, is under international pressure to disarm. The guerilla group has so far refused to bow to the pressure, including a United Nations resolution demanding militias in Lebanon give up their weapons. Calling it a resistance movement, not a militia, Lebanese authorities have resisted pressuring Hezbollah.

The Lebanese army has not deployed in the south, allowing Hezbollah to keep security control there since the Israeli withdrawal.

Hezbollah is also planning festivities in the former occupied zone to mark "Liberation and Resistance Day," including a mass rally in the town of Bint Jbeil on Wednesday. (AP)