Hariri went on television later urging Hezbollah to pull its fighters back and "save Lebanon from hell."

The army, which has stayed out of the sectarian political squabbling that has paralyzed the country for more than a year, did not intervene in the battles.

The unrest virtually shut down Lebanon's international airport for a third day and barricades closed major highways. Hezbollah first blocked roads in Beirut on Wednesday to enforce a strike called by labor unions, but confrontations quickly spread across the city.

In his speech, Nasrallah warned against trying to disarm Hezbollah and said his fighters would retaliate swiftly if attacked.

"Those who try to arrest us, we will arrest them. Those who shoot at us, we will shoot at them," Nasrallah said in a news conference via video link from his hiding place.

Later, Hariri made a televised appeal to Nasrallah seeking to calm the conflict.

"My appeal to you and to myself as well, the appeal of all Lebanon, is to stop the slide toward civil war, to stop the language of arms and lawlessness," said Hariri, son of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated in 2005.

Hariri proposed a compromise that would involve the army, one of the sole national institutions respected by Lebanon's long deadlocked political factions.

Opposition-affiliated television announced late Thursday that Hariri's offer had been rejected and the fighting continued.

The clashes are the latest turn in a test of wills between the Hezbollah-led opposition and the government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora. The U.S.-backed government has only a slim majority in parliament, and the two sides have been locked in a 17-month power struggle that has kept government at a standstill.

The fight could have implications for the entire Middle East at a time when Sunni-Shiite tensions are high. The tensions are fueled in part by the rivalry between predominantly Shiite Iran, which sponsors Hezbollah, and Sunni Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

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