BERLIN, Aug 5: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Saturday he would not rule out an assassination attempt on Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah by the military.

In an interview to be published on Sunday, Mr Olmert told the German weekly Welt am Sonntag that the normal rules of war did not apply to Hassan Nasrallah, who was not a head of state but ‘the chief of a terrorist organisation’.

Nasrallah could not expect to be treated like a legitimate leader, Mr Olmert said, while adding that he was not waging a ‘personal war against anyone in particular’.

Israel has killed dozens of leading Palestinian militants in targeted strikes which have also left civilians dead and aroused international criticism.

But Welt am Sonntag said that some 80 per cent of Israelis were in favour of the death of the fiery Shia leader.

Mr Olmert again hit back at critics of Israel’s massive response to last month’s capture of two of its soldiers by the Lebanese guerilla group.

“Where do they get the right to lecture Israel?” he said, recalling the NATO air strikes on Kosovo in 1999.

“European countries killed 10,000 civilians,” he charged, “and none of those countries had been the target of any missiles.”

Mr Olmert also repeated a statement made to Germany’s Der Spiegel weekly that Israel would be happy to see German troops in a proposed international force to take over in southern Lebanon.

But German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier warned against a hasty decision for or against sending troops to the region.—AFP