Beirut  - The leader of the Hezbollah Shiite movement, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, said late Monday that his group had the right to possess an air defence system to confront what he called the daily Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace.

"What I want to confirm today is that we have every right to obtain any weapon, including air defence weapons, and we have every right to use them," Nasrallah said at a rally in Beirut's southern suburbs to commemorate the first anniversary of the group's military leader Imad Mughaniyeh.

Budapest  - Hungary's Prime Minister vowed on Monday to double power production at his country's sole nuclear power plant, in the wake of January's gas spat between Russia and Ukraine.

Ferenc Gyurcsany cited improving Hungary's energy security situation as he urged lawmakers in the Budapest parliament to back his scheme to expand the plant at Paks, the country's only nuclear reactor, this year.

Analysts said the expansion could only be funded by foreign investors, as the government is currently in dire financial straits.

Caracas  - Venezuela's opposition leaders on Monday warned President Hugo Chavez that the referendum victory that removed term limits on his re-election "was no landslide," and he would need to seek greater consensus to remain in power.

Opposition leaders noted that 6 million Venezuelans, or 54 per cent of voters, favoured a proposal that allows the president unlimited re-election bids, while 5 million (46 per cent) voted against it and 32 per cent of those registered to cast their ballot, abstained.

Oslo - The Islamic Council of Norway on Monday distanced itself from remarks attributed to a leading Islamic scholar quoted as saying the Holocaust was a "divine punishment" against the Jews.

Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian-born, Qatar-based scholar made the alleged comments in a speech on the Arab broadcaster al-Jazeera in January, prompting widespread condemnation.

Budapest  - Hungary's socialist government presented a new tax package to parliament on Monday which it hopes will make the country one of the most competitive in the region.

Corporate tax will be raised from 16 to 19 per cent, but because a "solidarity" tax on company profit will be scrapped, the de facto rate will fall from 20 to 9 per cent.

Islamabad  - Hard-line Muslim cleric Maulana Sufi Mohammad, who signed a controversial peace deal with the provincial government in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) on Monday, said he hated democracy and wanted supremacy of Islam over the entire world.