BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon said Wednesday a Saudi plan aimed at defusing tensions between Beirut and Damascus falls short of expectations as the pro-Syrian Hezbollah movement appealed for Arab help in ending the crisis.

The plan is based on Syrian proposals and does not meet Lebanese demands for full sovereignty, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said.

"They are Syrian ideas conveyed by (Saudi Foreign Minister Prince) Saud al-Faisal ... that cannot resolve the problems with the Syrian brothers," he told reporters.

"Most Lebanese want healthy relations with Syria based on mutual respect, recognition of Lebanon's independence and sovereignty, and consequently the Syrian proposals do not respond to their ambitions.

"That does not mean we are hostile toward Syria, on the contrary. An independent Lebanon can cooperate better with Syria than a dependent one," the prime minister said.

"First we must insist on the question of security, and the killing machine must stop."

That was an allusion to widespread claims that Damascus was behind the assassination last year of popular former prime minister Rafiq Hariri and a number of other prominent anti-Syrian figures.

Syria has never recognised the independence of Lebanon and the two countries do not maintain diplomatic relations.

In an interview published Tuesday in Britain's Financial Times newspaper, Prince Saud said Saudi Arabia had handed Beirut and Damascus a plan to defuse tensions between the two neighbors touched off by the murders.

"Now it's in the hands of both countries and they will let us know," he was quoted as saying, without going into details of the plan announced after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited Saudi Arabia and Egypt earlier this month.

But Siniora said the "Syrian ideas are reworked old ideas regarding the delineation of borders and the question of diplomatic relations".

The head of the Shiite movement Hezbollah, in an interview published Wednesday, issued a "final appeal" for Arab help in healing the rift between the two neighbours, without mentioning the Saudi plan.

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah also slammed those whom he accused of fueling tensions and said the current political crisis in Beirut proved the difficulty of the Lebanese governing themselves.

"The situation in Lebanon is bad and has dangerous repercussions," Nasrallah told the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat. "We launch our final appeal for the intervention of our Arab brothers."

The involvement of other Arabs is necessary "not only to ask them to help Lebanon and Syria to surmount the crisis, but we also need the intervention of wise Arab leaders to overcome our internal problems."

Lebanon's government has been virtually paralysed since December 12 when Hezbollah and the country's other Syrian-backed Shiite movement, Amal, ordered their cabinet members not to participate.

Nasrallah said this crisis "proves that it is difficult for the Lebanese to manage their own affairs."

The Hezbollah chief added that he "rejects agitation in Lebanon for any war against Syria," referring to calls by anti-Damascus politicians for regime change in Damascus.

"That is dangerous not only for Syria but also for Lebanon. We consider that any political, security or media war that certain people want to drag Lebanon into is contrary to Lebanese national interests," he said.

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