Beirut, 16 Jan. (AKI) - Radical Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah has announced it will protest against US involvement in Lebanon by staging a demonstration in front of the American Embassy in Beirut on Tuesday. "The United States want to use Lebanon as their new base to establish an hegemony over the region," Hezbollah spokesman, Husein Nabulsi, told Adnkronos International (AKI) on Monday.

The demonstration is being organised by Hezbollah together with Lebanon's other main Shiite party, Amal, and a smaller pro-Syrian party, the PSNS.

Anti-American sentiment has been running high in Lebanon among the pro-Syrian segments of the population since Damascus was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon last April in the face of Washington-led international pressure.

On Saturday, US undersecretary of state for Middle Eastern Affairs, David Welch's visit to Beirut was greeted by a jeering group of some 200 students who pelted government cars with eggs and tomatoes. Some of the demonstrators clashed with anti-riot police who tried to disperse the crowd with tear gas and baton-charges near the Lebanese government's offices in Beirut's central Riyad as-Solh square.

Welch rejected the accusation that Washington was meddling in Lebanon's internal affiairs.