HARISSA, Lebanon - Anti-Syrian Christian leader Samir Geagea scoffed Sunday at Hezbollah claims of victory in its conflict with Israel and avowals that it wanted a strong state in Lebanon.

"We are the victors, and yet we do not feel it was victory but rather that a real catastrophe befell our country, and that our fate and destiny are at the mercy of the winds," the Lebanese Forces (LF) leader and member of the "March 14" political group told a rally attended by tens of thousands.

Crowds flocked to a hilltop Maronite cathedral in Harissa north of Beirut, site of a giant statue of the Virgin Mary, for a mass and to hear Geagea's speech at the rally staged as a memorial for "martyrs" of his party killed during Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.

The first rally by the anti-Syrian camp on Lebanon's divided political scene since the devastating conflict with Israel attracted tens of thousands of supporters, an AFP correspondent estimated.

It came two days after the Syrian-backed Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah held a demonstration attended by hundreds of thousands in Beirut to celebrate "victory" in the July-August war with Israel.

"We have to show Hezbollah that we exist too, that they can't just impose their wars on us," said Elie Asma, 21, who climbed the steep hill to Harissa for the annual memorial.

With their white LF flags bearing the cedar tree symbol of Lebanon and their shirts stamped with the cross of the right-group party, young supporters chanted slogans against both Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah and the Shiite movement's Christian ally, General Michel Aoun.

"We are the victors because it was us who were demanding the (Lebanese) army's deployment (in south Lebanon), backed by UNIFIL (peacekeepers), while they were opposed," said Geagea, without naming Hezbollah.

The March 14 group, which includes parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, and Druze chief Walid Jumblatt, criticised Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers on July 12 that sparked the conflict.

It has called for the group to disarm, in keeping with UN demands.

"They demand a strong state, but how can a strong state be built with a statelet within its midst? How can it be done with arms and ammunition continuing to flow in, when they force the state to follow their own schedule?" asked Geagea.

"We say to them that once we find a solution to the arms, it will be possible to build a strong state," he said, remaining calm throughout his speech.

"Those tears expressed the exact feelings of the people," he said, referring to Nasrallah's criticism of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora who wept openly during an Arab League conference held in Beirut during the war.

It was "out of the question to speak of victory", after more than 1,200 people were killed in Lebanon alone, overwhelmingly civilians, and billions of dollars in damage were inflicted on the country, he said.

Geagea, 53, a former head of the LF militia which was disbanded after the civil war, became the only ex-warlord to stand trial for crimes committed during the conflict. He was sentenced to several life sentences for murder and attempted murder.

He spent 11 years in solitary confinement before the rise of the anti-Syrian camp after the February 2005 assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri and the subsequent pullout of Syrian troops whose country was widely accused of the murder.

Geagea was freed under an amnesty law passed by parliament in July 2005.

Lebanon's Christian camp is itself divided, with rival Aoun having forged an alliance with Hezbollah although he fought an abortive "war of liberation" against Syrian forces at the tail-end of the 15-year civil conflict.

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