Head of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement Hassan Nasrallah had been injured, Israeli TV says.

The head of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement Hassan Nasrallah had been injured, Israeli TV says.

The Hezbollah chief yesterday declared open war on Israel following its bombardment of his Beirut home and stronghold.

Israel has been pounding the Lebanese capital for five days with the aim of crippling Hezbollah and forcing Lebanon to try to stop the guerilla group from firing rockets into Israel's northern border.

The attacks started after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border operation on Wednesday.

"Hassan Nasrallah was wounded during an air raid by Israeli forces on Beirut," Israeli private television reported without giving further details.

Hezbollah denied the leader had been hurt.

Israeli government ministers have made no bones about their desire to see the 45-year-old Hezbollah leader eliminated.

"He can benefit from no immunity. We will wipe him out at the first opportunity. That's why he had better pray to Allah," Zeev Boim, minister for immigration and an ally of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said yesterday.

Israel has pounded Beirut's southern suburbs in the fifth day of an offensive against the Hezbollah guerilla group in Lebanon.

The conflict shows no sign of ending soon.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair today blamed Iran and Syria for the latest flare-up in the Middle East, while US President George Bush blamed Hezbollah and said Israel had the right to defend itself.

Speaking after talks with Mr Bush, Mr Blair insisted they and fellow leaders would "work very hard to find a common and unified position" on the crisis in their talks at the G8 summit in St Petersburg, Russia.

Mr Blair said: "Sometimes there's been a hesitation in putting the real truth of the situation up there in front of people.

"The fact is there are people in that region, notably Iran and Syria, who do not want this process of democratisation and peace and negotiation to succeed."

He went on: "I think everyone's going to work very hard to find a common and unified position.

"We all want the situation to calm down and we want it to calm down because we urgently have to act to protect Lebanese democracy and to re-engage people in the negotiating process.

"The question is, how do we calm it down - the only way we are going to get this situation calmed is if we address the reasons why the situation has arisen and the basic reasons are that there are extremists who want to end the process that could lead to the two-state solution."

Mr Blair's comments came after Israel began its latest bombing blitz on Lebanon in retaliation for the kidnap of two of its soldiers and rocket attacks launched against from southern Lebanon.

Mr Bush said Israel had "every right to defend itself" against attack but should be "mindful of the consequences".

"As a sovereign nation, Israel has every right to defend itself against terrorist activity," Mr Bush said today after talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on the sidelines of the G8 summit of world leaders in St Petersburg, Russia.

"Our message to Israel is defend yourself but be mindful of the consequences." He said the Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hizbollah "was the start of this".

"It's really important for the world to address the root cause," he added. "This is a moment of clarification."

Meanwhile, Israeli forces moved back into the northern Gaza Strip, killing at least three militants and wounding 10.

Thirty-five civilians, including 15 children, were killed in the attacks yesterday