Lebanese President Joseph Aoun's office said on Friday that officials from his country, Israel and the United States would meet next week in Washington "to discuss declaring a ceasefire and the start date for negotiations between Lebanon and Israel under US auspices".

Hundreds of people gathered near the government headquarters in central Beirut on Saturday in support of Hezbollah and to protest against the talks with Israel, some waving the group's yellow flags or the Iranian standard.

Oula Hammoud, from south Lebanon, said she rejected any normalisation with Israel and wanted Prime Minister Nawaf Salam "to leave the country".

"From the start of the war until now, only the heroes have defended us," she said, asking: "What has he (Salam) done for the nation?"

Fellow demonstrator Ruqaya Msheik said the protest was a message that Lebanon "will not be Israeli".

"Whoever wants peace with Israel is not Lebanese," she said, adding: "Those who shake hands with the enemy... are Zionists."

Aoun had repeatedly expressed readiness for direct talks ever since Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 with rocket fire at Israel in support of its backer Iran, sparking massive Israeli strikes and a ground invasion.

- 'Civil peace' -

After a ceasefire was announced between the United States and Iran this week, Washington and Tehran have been at odds over whether it also applies to Lebanon, where Israel has kept up heavy strikes and Hezbollah has responded with its own attacks.

Hezbollah and its ally the Amal movement issued a statement later Saturday calling on supporters to avoid demonstrating "at this delicate stage", citing interests of "stability, the protection of civil peace and avoiding any division that the Israeli enemy seeks".

Earlier, Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said the decision to hold direct talks with Israel was "a blatant violation of the (national) pact, the constitution and Lebanese laws".

The move "exacerbates domestic divisions at a time when Lebanon most needs solidarity and internal unity to face Israel's aggression and preserve civil peace", he added in a statement.

The government "has failed to protect its people and cannot be trusted to safeguard national sovereignty", he added.

Israeli ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter has said his country "agreed to begin formal peace negotiations" with the Lebanese government, but "refused to discuss a ceasefire with Hezbollah".

Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader, warned Salam that ignoring Hezbollah "will expose Lebanon to irreparable security risks".

- Funerals -

The Israeli military said Saturday it had struck more than 200 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon within the past 24 hours, among them rocket launchers.

Lebanon's health ministry said 10 people were killed by Israeli strikes in the country's south on Saturday, with state media reporting Israeli raids on more than a dozen locations.

The ministry said the dead included a member of the Lebanese civil defence and two paramedics from the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee, decrying Israel's "systematic" targeting of emergency workers.

In the coastal city of Sidon, hundreds of people attended a funeral procession for 13 State Security personnel who were killed the day before in Israeli strikes in Nabatiyeh in the south.

Loved ones grasped at the coffins, each bearing the Lebanese flag, while others wept inconsolably.

The widow of one of those killed screamed: "Who will bring my husband back? Who will give my children their father back?"

Authorities say more than 1,950 people have been killed in Lebanon since the war erupted.

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