Lebanon's most prominent anti-Syrian opposition leader says Hezbollah, the Damascus-backed Shi'ite Muslim group, should stay armed until Israel withdraws from a disputed border area. Walid Jumblatt made the comment on Sunday after holding talks with Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.

This is the first meeting between the two prominent figures since last month's assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. And this could signal a thaw in frosty relations between Lebanon's opposition and Hezbollah.

Jumblatt's latest statement is at odds with US policy toward Hezbollah. Washington regards the group as a terrorist organization... and is leading international calls for its members to be disarmed.

Hezbollah was the main force that drove Israeli troops from southern Lebanon in 2000, after a 22-year occupation.

And it's members have vowed to keep fighting as long as Israel remains in the Shebaa Farms area... a tiny disputed border enclave on the border between Lebanon, Israel and Syria's Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.