Officials said the Lebanese Army, which is 50 percent Shi'ite, has been facilitating weapons shipments to Hizbullah from Syria. They said the army, meant to receive about $250 million in U.S. military aid in 2007, was protecting convoys that moved missiles and other military assets to Hizbullah bases in the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told a Knesset committee that Hizbullah has augmented its missile force by 50 percent through shipments from Iran and Syria. In a briefing to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday, Barak said the shipments from Iran were moving through Syria's naval port at Latakia, Middle East Newsline reported.

In all, officials said, Hizbullah has amassed 20,000 missiles and rockets, a greater arsenal than that on the eve of the war with Israel in July 2006. They said this included long-and medium-range rockets, short-range Katyusha rockets and anti-tank missiles.

"Today, we heard a briefing at the committee that not only has the missile shipments to Hizbullah not been reduced, but it has increased by 50 percent," Knesset member Silvan Shalom, a former foreign minister, said.

Officials said Hizbullah was placing missiles and rockets in newly-constructed bunkers and facilities north of the Litani River. They said other missiles were being deployed in the Jezzine area in southern Lebanon.

"Hizbullah's new arsenal is located north of the Litani and south of the Zahrani river," Knesset member Yuval Steinitz, a former committee chairman, said.

A senior military intelligence officer told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that military tensions with Syria have been reduced over the last few weeks. The officer, Col. Eli Ben Meir, deputy head of military intelligence's research division, said Syria has concluded major military exercises in southern Syria.