Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday said
his Lebanese guerilla group would release the two Israel Defense Forces soldiers it kidnapped only in exchange for the release of Samir Kuntar, Israel's longest-held Hezbollah prisoner.

"You ask me, will there be a deal without Samir, I say no," Nasrallah told Al Jazeera television in an interview aired on Tuesday. "Absolutely not," he added. "After all that happened and this ends without Samir?"

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Nasrallah also said he expected a UN "mediator" to visit
Lebanon next week to try to secure a deal for the release of the soldiers, kidnapped in July.

"He was supposed to come late last week and he is expected to come next week, but negotiations have not yet started."

Nasrallah said the envoy was European but did not give more details.

Earlier Tuesday, Nasrallah strongly condemned British Prime Minister Tony Blair's visit to Lebanon, saying he was a partner in the killing of Lebanese, according to a televised interview aired Tuesday.

Nasrallah's comments on Al-Jazeera television came a day after Blair received a warm welcome by Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora. Thousands of Lebanese demonstrated against the visit.

"Tony Blair is a partner in the killing, and then you bring him to my house, to my family and you give him a great welcome. Don't those people have feelings?" he said.

Nasrallah told Al-Jazeera, in an excerpt of the interview. The full interview was scheduled to be aired later Tuesday.

As Blair and Saniora held a news conference on Monday, they were disrupted by an angry protester who accused the British prime minister of complicity in last month's Israel Defense Forces bombardment of Lebanon.

Blair said during his visit to Beirut that he understood the anger in Lebanon, where many saw his refusal to break ranks with U.S. President George W. Bush's decision not to call for a quick cease-fire during 34 days of fighting as tacit support for Israel's offensive. More than 850 people were killed in Lebanon, many of them civilians.

"The first mistake of the prime minister and the political bloc that backs him is that they made an immoral and inhuman behavior toward the people who were killed or wounded or destroyed or displaced. This is regrettable," Nasrallah said.

Nasrallah has rarely appeared in public since the 34-day war began on July 12, after his militants captured two IDF soldiers on the Lebanon-Israel border. He gave several interviews since the war began, two of them to Al-Jazeera.