The Lebanese Hizbullah repeated its call on Friday for a national unity cabinet for the country, calling it a 'serious option it is useless to try to avoid'.
Sheikh Naim Kassem, the organisation's number two, made the call during a Beirut speech at a gathering to mark "Jerusalem Day".
"We want real, not imaginary, representation," Kassem said, adding: "We are partners, and that must be acknowledged in a legal manner."
Hizbullah, with two ministers in the cabinet of the ruling anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, wants the inclusion of other political groups in government, particularly that of its Christian ally General Michel Aoun -- a move opposed by the majority.
In the port city of Tyre, the Hizbullah leader for southern Lebanon, Nabil Qauq, echoed the call for a unity cabinet.
There can be "no salvation for Lebanon without a national unity government," he told a 3,000-strong gathering in the city to mark Jerusalem day.
Parliamentary majority chief Saad Hariri last month rejected any change in the makeup of the cabinet following a similar call by Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrullah for a government of national unity.
Nasrullah's statement was seen as an apparent bid to turn the popular acclaim his fighters won in their 34-day summer conflict with Israel into greater political power at the national level.
Kassem also reiterated Hizbullah's support for Palestinians living in Israeli-occupied territories, calling for the "liberation of all the territories and of Jerusalem".