Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah threw down the gauntlet on Wednesday against the US and the UN over any attempts to disarm the extremist Iranian-backed Lebanese Shi'ite organization.

He also issued a direct warning to Israel that the organization has more than 12,000 rockets that were capable of reaching all of northern Israel.

It was the first time that the head of Hizbullah has stated categorically that it has the capability of striking Israel with a bombardment of rockets, many of which are believed to be long-range versions that could reach Haifa and its environs.

Nasrallah was in a fiery mood when he addressed tens of thousands of people at a rally to mark the fifth anniversary of the IDF's withdrawal from south Lebanon.

He was also, apparently, acutely aware of the international pressure on any future Lebanese government to disarm what Israel has described as a fully-fledged terrorist organization and what Lebanese leaders and Nasrallah himself portray as a resistance movement.

Nasrallah's speech came amid various changes on the Lebanese political scene and intense diplomatic pressure for the disarming and disbandment of the sole-remaining armed militia in Lebanon following the forced withdrawal of Syrian forces from the Land of the Cedars.

The pullout of Syrian troops last month as a result of people power protests throughout Lebanon and especially in Beirut, coupled with international demands, has put pressure on Hizbullah.

Syria withdrew its military forces while apparently leaving a widespread network of intelligence and security apparatus in Lebanon in compliance with UN Security Council resolution 1559.

The same resolution calls for the disbandment of all militia organizations in Lebanon, but Hizbullah has become the only recognized militia in the country, on the pretext of being the Islamic Resistance.

Not only has it survived because of its claim that it is the sole defender of Lebanon and its people, Hizbullah has continued to receive supplies of weapons from its ideological mentor and financier, Iran, via another patron, Syria.

These have included improved long-range versions of the Katyusha rockets, the original versions of which were used effectively against Kiryat Shmona and other northern communities in the past.

"All of the north of occupied Palestine, its settlements, airports, seaports, fields, factories and farms, is under the feet and hands of the Islamic Resistance," said Nasrallah at the rally in south Lebanon.

"They (Israelis) want to take this power away from Lebanon ... They say 12,000 rockets. I say more than 12,000 rockets," he said.

Nasrallah warned that the organization would not tolerate any attempt to disarm its military wing and would fight to preserve its right to continue as a resistance force in Lebanon.

"All and any ideas of disarming the resistance are crazy . . . Anybody who thinks of disarming the resistance - we will fight them as Shi'ite suicide fighters.

"Any hand that reaches out to our weapons is an Israeli hand that will be severed," said Nasrallah to cheers from the crowd of supporters and visitors, who included leading Lebanese politicians such as Druse leader Walid Jumblatt.

On the other hand, Nasrallah offered an olive branch to his political opponents in Lebanon saying that the organization was open to all internal discussion, as long as it would preserve the resistance and its ability to deter and protect.

He maintained that the organization did not want to drag the area into a war and that Hizbullah's aim was not to incite a regional conflagration.