JERUSALEM - Hezbollah is militarily stronger today than before the 34-day war Israel waged against the group in Lebanon last summer, according to a warning from a senior Israeli officer.

"Hezbollah has reinforced and it is stronger today than it was before the war in Lebanon," General Yossi Beidatz, a senior military intelligence officer, reportedly told Parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee.

Syria, accused along with Iran of supplying arms to Hezbollah, is similarly reinforcing its military to prepare for the possibility of a new armed conflict in the region, Beidatza added Monday.

Israel sought to destroy the Shiite militia in a 34-day bombardment of Lebanon last July and August, but the Jewish state failed to achieve many of its war aims, leading to an official inquiry into the war's conduct.

Israelis were incensed at their military's failure to slow the torrent of around 4,000 Hezbollah rockets that rained down on Israel during the war, killing 40 civilians. An additional 120 Israeli soldiers died in the conflict.

An estimated 1,200 Lebanese died in the war as Israel deployed a pounding air assault on many parts of Lebanon.

Israeli Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer recently said Israel should expect a new war with Hezbollah in 2007. AFP