BEIRUT, Lebanon - Pro-Syrian Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, under pressure by the anti-Damascus parliamentary majority to resign, repeated Saturday that he would not do so.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera television, Lahoud also reiterated his support for former general Michel Aoun to succeed him when his term ends.

"If I quit now, it might be thought that I was a traitor, or that I had violated the constitution," he said, referring to the only two instances for which a head of state can be tried.

On February 16, leaders of the anti-Syrian camp in parliament called on Lahoud to resign by March 14.

That deadline referred to the date of a massive rally 11 months ago held to commemorate the assassination a month earlier of former premier Rafiq Hariri. Almost one million people, or one in four of Lebanon's population, took part.

The president's term in office was controversially extended by three years to the end of November 2007 under a Syrian-promoted constitutional amendment adopted in September 2004 and opposed by Hariri.

Referring to Aoun, who returned to Lebanon last year after 15 years in French exile, he said the former general was a "man of his word".

"He greatly resembles me and could continue the work that we have begun, because he graduated from the same military school (as Lahoud), respects his promises and fights against corruption.

Meanwhile, Lahoud said that the "only guarantee against repeated Israeli aggression" that Lebanon has is for the armed wing of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah to keep its arms. The United Nations Security Council has called for all militias in Lebanon to be disarmed.

The Lebanese army "has always supported the arms of the resistance. These are the arms that force Israeli to revise its expansionist policy in Lebanon, and they should keep them until the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict and until the Palestinians regain their homes in Palestine."

Lebanon and Israel are technically still at war, and Beirut claims with the approval of Damascus a small mountainous region known as the Shebaa Farms, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967.

Hezbollah spearheaded a guerrilla campaign to drive Israeli troops out of southern Lebanon, which finally bore fruit in 2000. It continues to harass Israeli troops in the Shebaa Farms.

However, Lahoud backed the call for Palestinian refugees and pro-Syrian militias to be disarmed.

He also repeated his criticisms of French President Jacques Chirac, accusing him again of interfering in Lebanese affairs.

Lahoud affirmed his "desire to maintain the best relations (with France), but President Chirac has his own plans ... and is following his own policy. Unfortunately, his deeds contradict his words. He tells the world he is not interfering in Lebanese affairs. But, in fact, he is and affecting the UN Security Council and other states."

Last month, Lahoud's office accused Chirac of working with anti-Syrian political forces in a bid to oust the president. Chirac denied the allegation.

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