The Lebanese Army seized 75 missiles in the western Bekaa valley - close to the border with Syria - Lebanese security sources said Saturday.

The sources said the Soviet-made Grad - similar to the Katyusha - missiles were found in a flour mill in the area of al-Biri-Rashya.

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said two people who are believed to belong to a pro-Syrian group were arrested in connection with the incident.

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The men were identified as Hassan Zeineddine and his son Billal. They were still being interrogated by the Lebanese authorities, the sources said without elaborating.

Lebanon's Hezbollah-led opposition called on Saturday for a general
strike next week as part of efforts to step up its campaign against the pro-Western Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's government.

The group, led by the militant Shi'ite Hezbollah party, said the strike, which would start Tuesday, would be a response to Saniora's failure to meet the "legitimate and rightful demands of the people."

"The opposition is resorting to its popular base as a means for escalating the peaceful and democratic protest, and calls on the Lebanese to freely express their national and political choice," said the group's statement, faxed to The Associated Press.

It also said the government had "belittled and scoffed at the massive, democratic, well-mannered and civilized protests and sit-ins in downtown Beirut," launched Dec. 1.

The opposition has staged the daily street protests and set up hundreds of tents outside the prime minister's office, paralyzing Beirut's city center to press for stronger political power, or to force Saniora to quit.

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah announced on Friday that the opposition would wage an "effective, important and very big action" to pressure Saniora to cede power.

Separately, Lebanon's powerful labor union federation on Saturday called on its 350,000-strong rank and file to also go on strike Tuesday, to protest Saniora's planned tax hikes that are part of his economic reform program.

"Let's make January 23 a day of showing popular willpower and a day of protest against injustice and oppression," said the union, which has supported the Hezbollah opposition.

The Syrian and Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its supporters, including the National Patriotic Movement led by Gen. Michel Aoun, a Maronite Christian, have staged massive protests and daily sit-ins in downtown Beirut, 100 meters from Saniora's office.

The opposition wants a national unity government in which it would have veto power to block passage of bills by Saniora, such as one on setting up an international tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, assassinated in a truck bomb explosion last February.

Hezbollah opposes the tribunal, called on by a UN Security Council resolution. UN investigators have implicated Syrian intelligence officials in the attack, and four pro-Syrian Lebanese intelligence officers are under arrest in Lebanon in connection with it.

The calls for a general strike came just days before a Jan. 25 Lebanon donors conference in Paris, designed to attract foreign financial assistance, badly needed after the summer Hezbollah-Israel war that severely hurt the Lebanese economy.

The opposition has criticized the Paris conference, claiming the donor money and loans - which local analysts set around $5 billion - would only increase the national debt and further weaken the economy.

Nasrallah celebrates Halutz resignation, says more to come
The head of Lebanon's radical Islamic Hezbollah movement Sheikh Hassan
Nasrallah announced Friday that he was "happy" with the resignation of Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz earlier in the week.

"When I heard the news, I was very happy," Nasrallah said during a television interview with the Hezbollah-run al-Manar television. He said he now expects more resignations from the Israeli government.

"We have been waiting for such a resignation since the Israeli war on Lebanon in July ended," Nasrallah said, adding that he expects the resignation of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz.

The Hezbollah chief said, "It is the group's martyrs who achieved this resignation after Israel failed to confront our strugglers in southern Lebanon."

Halutz resigned Wednesday over the failure of the Lebanon war, which was considered a second blow to Olmert's unpopular government after a graft probe was launched.

"This is not a failure for Olmert's cabinet only, but the failure of a major political party in Israel, the Kadima party and its main coalition partner, Labor," Nasrallah said.