BEIRUT - An Israeli report on the 2006 Lebanon war is a victory for both the Lebanese army and for Hezbollah, the Shiite movement whose cross-border raid sparked the conflict, Lebanon's army chief said in comments published Thursday.

"We did not expect an official Israeli body to condemn publicly its government and army," General Michel Sleiman, who is tipped to become president, told As-Safir newspaper.

"The Winograd Report confirms that Israel ... is the one that took the decision to launch war on Lebanon without any justification.

"Israel's public admission that its army failed in Lebanon strengthens our confidence in ourselves as Lebanese ... and confirms the joint victory of the army and the resistance," he added, using a common term for Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, the Western-backed government issued a statement in which it warned that Israel "failed to learn its lessons and is preparing for a new war on Lebanon."

The Winograd Commission, appointed by the Israeli government to probe the 34-day war, said on Wednesday that the war was a missed opportunity and a grave failure for the Jewish state.

But it said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had acted in what he sincerely believed to have been the country's best interest.

Hezbollah, whose guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers in the raid that brought an Israeli invasion in response, welcomed the report's findings.

"Israel failed completely in achieving its goals and the Israeli army suffered a military defeat at the hands of Hezbollah," spokesman Hussein Rahal told AFP on Wednesday.