BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has vowed at a massive Shiite rally to defeat what he said were US-Israeli plots to provoke civil war in Lebanon, warning that the nation would be the "cemetery of invaders."

Nasrallah, addressing a huge crowd gathered for the sacred Shiite day of Ashura, accused US President George W. Bush and Israel of "trying to defeat resistance movements in Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq by starting civil wars."

"Lebanon will not be defeated. We will not allow it to be invaded... we have proved that we are capable of defeating (invaders)," he said to chants of "Death to Israel" from the crowd.

The leader of the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah was referring what he hails as the "divine victory" of his guerrillas in last year's war against Israel.

"Lebanon is a land that cannot be defeated or humiliated. Lebanon has always been the cemetery of invaders, and it will be the cemetery of any new invaders," he said.

"The future of Israel is death and the future of this umma (Islamic nation) is life. Death to Israel," said Nasrallah, whose party has been waging a protest campaign to force out the Western-backed Beirut government.

On Monday, Bush deplored the civil unrest in Lebanon and warned that Iran, Syria and Hezbollah must be "called to account" for trying to destabilise the country.

"They are the ones plotting a new conspiracy for a civil war in Lebanon," retorted Nasrallah. "The Islamic Resistance declares that it will not be dragged into internal strife and fighting."

Seven people were killed and more than 300 others wounded in two days of riots last week, including street fighting that pitted Shiite opposition supporters against pro-government Sunnis.

Leaders from both sides called for calm to avoid more bloodshed, but many warned that the situation could spin out of control and plunge the country back into the anarchy and violence of the 1975-1990 civil war.

"We refuse to resort to arms... the solution can only be political, and we back any initiative in order to resolve the matter," Nasrallah said, referring to Iranian and Saudi mediation efforts.

The Hezbollah-led opposition, backed by neighbouring Syria and regional ally Iran, has launched a sit-in since December in Beirut to push for the formation of a new unity government in which it would hold a veto.

The government and its anti-Syrian parliamentary majority which was elected in 2005 after the pullout of Syrian troops and is are supported by Western countries and their Arab allies, led by Sunni heavyweight Saudi Arabia.

"They (the United States) accuse Hezbollah of spreading chaos in Lebanon... when it is George Bush and (US Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice who are the ones spreading chaos by ordering (Israeli) wars on Lebanon," said Nasrallah.

"George Bush wants to punish you (Hezbollah supporters) because you are resisting in an American era where it is banned for you to be victors and where life is only allowed for the subservents and humiliated," he said.

The massive crowd of Hezbollah supporters swarmed into Beirut's Shiite-dominant southern suburbs to mark Ashura, the holiest Shiite rite which commemorates the killing of Imam Hussein in 680 by armies of the Sunni caliph Yazid in Iraq.

Hezbollah has banned the spilling of blood during Ashura, in line with a decree from Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Smaller rallies were held in Beirut and other regions during which non-Hezbollah Shiites marked Ashura by flaying themselves with swords and chains to spill their blood.

In the southern town of Nabatiyeh, men of all ages marched through the streets with blood streaming from their heads after peforming the ritual to express guilt and remorse for not saving Imam Hussein. -AFP