The Iran-backed Hezbollah 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 included 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.

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem, in a televised address while the cabinet meeting was underway, said it would not disarm while Israeli attacks continue.

"Any timetable presented for implementation under... Israeli aggression cannot be agreed to," he said.

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

"Are we being asked to engage in dialogue, or to surrender our weapons without dialogue?" Qassem said.

"We cannot accept Lebanon committing to gradually giving up its strength while all the strength cards remain in the hands of the Israeli enemy," he added.

- 'Crucial stage' -

Qassem criticised a recent proposal presented by US envoy Tom Barrack on disarming the group.

"Whoever looks at the deal Barrack brought doesn't find an agreement but dictates," he said, arguing that "it removes the strength and capabilities of Hezbollah and Lebanon entirely."

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.

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

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.

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.

- Diplomatic impasse? -

In his speech, Qassem said that "we do not agree to any new deal other than the existing deal between the Lebanese state and the Israeli entity," referring to the November ceasefire.

Qassem warned Israel against launching any new "large-scale aggression" because "if it does, Hezbollah will go on the defensive, "and this defence will lead to rockets falling inside the Israeli entity".

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.