Israel minister demands swift killing of Hezbollah chief

JERUSALEM: Israel should "liquidate" Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah "at the first opportunity," Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer, a former defence minister, told army radio on Saturday.

"We must liquidate Nasrallah at the first opportunity, because he is the embodiment of evil, not just for us but for Muslims and Christians too," Ben Eliezer said.

The minister is a member of the centre-left Labour party, the main coalition partner of the centrist Kadima formation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

His comments came as Lebanon said it had been told that Israel planned to complete its pullout from the south on Sunday, following its devastating 34-day conflict with the Shiite militants of Hezbollah in July and August.

Ben Eliezer on Saturday did not rule out a resumption of hostilities in south Lebanon after the Israeli pullout.

"My impression is that war could break out again in Lebanon over the next three or four months," he said.

Nasrallah made his first public appearance since the war at a huge "victory" rally in Beirut on September 22, emerging from more than two months in hiding to address a rapturous crowd in the shattered southern suburbs.