The Iran-backed group emerged badly weakened from more than a year of hostilities with Israel, including two months of all-out war that saw its arsenal pummelled and a slew of senior commanders killed, among them leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Long the strongest political force in Lebanon -- with detractors accusing it of using the threat of its weaponry to impose its will on domestic decisions -- Hezbollah has also seen that influence diminish since the conflict.

The official National News Agency said the cabinet convened on Tuesday at 3:00 pm (1200 GMT), headed by President Joseph Aoun.

Agenda items include discussions "on extending the state's sovereignty across all its territory exclusively through its own forces", and talks on the November ceasefire that ended the recent war with Israel.

Israel has kept up regular raids on Lebanon despite the truce, mostly saying it is striking Hezbollah targets, and has threatened to keep doing so until the group has been disarmed.

Hezbollah is the only faction that kept its weapons after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, doing so in the name of "resistance" against Israel, which occupied the country's south until 2000.

A Lebanese official with knowledge of the talks told AFP that "Washington is pressuring Lebanon to make Hezbollah hand over its weapons according to a timetable, but without (the US) providing any guarantees".

The group will not surrender its weapons "without something in return -- the Americans know this well", the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem is expected to make an address later Tuesday.

- Impasse ahead? -

Last month, US envoy Tom Barrack urged Lebanon to "act now" to impose a state weapons monopoly.

Aoun last week said Lebanon was committed to removing "weapons from all armed groups including Hezbollah" and seeing them surrendered to Lebanon's army.

Lebanon is at "a crucial stage" and must choose "between collapse and stability", Aoun had said, linking international support for the crisis-hit country to disarming the group.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar television channel said Tuesday that "the US demand is Lebanon's full surrender to the Israeli enemy without any guarantees" on compelling Israel to abide by the ceasefire.

Before discussing the fate of its weapons, which it considers a matter of domestic defence strategy, Hezbollah has demanded that reconstruction of areas destroyed during the war begin, and that Israel stop its attacks, withdraw from five areas it occupies and release Lebanese prisoners.

But analysts say Hezbollah's options for pressing its demands are more limited since the conflict.

According to David Wood from the International Crisis Group, Hezbollah could apply pressure to the government by telling the cabinet meeting "that the (disarmament) decision doesn't represent Lebanon's national interests".

It could also encourage its supporters to demonstrate, but any violent escalation "that Hezbollah's leadership deliberately plans and calls for is still a pretty unlikely scenario", he said, noting a domestic confrontation was "not in Hezbollah's interest".

However, with the government pushing for disarmament and Hezbollah demanding concessions first, Wood said a diplomatic track could run into an impasse.