Beirut- The Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah on Monday defended the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US president George W Bush on Sunday.

"This is a goodbye kiss on behalf of the widows and orphans and people who have been killed in Iraq," a statement issued by Hezbollah read.

The statement echoed the words of Montasser al-Zaidi, 28, the reporter with the Cairo-based satellite broadcaster al-Baghdadiyia who threw his shoes at Bush in protest. As al-Zaidi threw his shoes, he said "this is a goodbye kiss, dog."

Beirut - The leader of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said late Tuesday that he expects to see no change in US foreign policy with the election of Senator Barack Obama as president.

"Don't exaggerate hopes nor give people high expectations so that no one is disappointed or makes miscalculations ... the American foreign policy will not change," Nasrallah told supporters at Hezbollah's Martyrs Day in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Beirut  - The Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement has condemned the US raid in Syria as a "terrorist crime" that violated Syrian sovereignty, Lebanese media reported said Tuesday.

Hezbollah, in a statement, also urged the Arab League and Arab states to "shoulder their responsibilities because they are threatened by similar attacks," according to Voice of Lebanon radio.

"US occupation and Israeli occupation pose a threat to the region's peace and stability," the statement said.

The Syrian government and Arab leaders in the region have expressed outrage over the purported US helicopter raid Sunday targeting militants in the town of Abu Kamal.

Beirut - Iranian speaker of parliament Ali Larijani is to travel to Iraq and Lebanon in the next few days, according to a report published by the Saudi Arabian daily Al-Watan on Wednesday.

Larijani will convey messages from Iraqi Ayatollah Ali Sistani to Hezbollah Secretary General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the daily quoted unnamed sources from Iran as saying.

The sources said that the letter carried by Larijani, who is currently visiting Manama, revealed Sistani's position on the security agreement between Iraq and the United States.

Beirut  - A military investigation into last week's attack on a Lebanese army helicopter by the Islamic group Hezbollah was likely to expand the hypothesis that there was more than one person involved, judicial sources said Tuesday.

The sources said that based on testimony by co-pilot Mahmoud Abboud and other witnesses, military investigators have demanded that Hezbollah turn over three other men allegedly involved in last Thursday's helicopter shooting that killed military officer Samer Hanna in Sujed, southern Lebanon.