BEIRUT, Lebanon - Authorities Thursday confiscated a truck loaded with arms in an area on the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanese Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said.

"The army has seized a truck loaded with weapons in Hazmieh, 2 kilometres, east of Beirut," the minister said after a regular cabinet meeting.

"The truck was coming from the Bekaa Valley," the minister said without elaborating.

The Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah issued a statement claiming responsibility for the confiscated weapons.

"The Lebanese custom offices have confiscated a truck carrying ammunition for the resistance (Hezbollah) from the Bekaa to southern Lebanon," the statement said.

"According to the ministerial declaration, the resistance has the right to continue their struggle to liberate the rest of the occupied Lebanese land and free the prisoners (still held in Israel), therefore the Lebanese authorities should abide by this declaration," the movement's statement said.

"The Lebanese authorities should return all the ammunition because it belongs to the resistance and not to another group," the statement said.

Lebanese security sources said the truck was loaded with machineguns and pistols.

The sources said the Lebanese customs department received a tip that a truck was heading with weapons to the capital Beirut.

On February 4, the official Syrian news agency (SANA) said Syrian custom officers seized an Iraqi truck transporting light weapons bound for Lebanon.

Hezbollah was the only armed group which was not asked to lay down their arms after the end of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, because it was considered a "resistance movement fighting against an occupying force" (Israel).

In 2004 UN Security Council 1559 ca1led for the disarming of all militias in Lebanon.-DPA