Hezbollah says U.S. trying to intimidate Lebanese

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday the United States was trying to intimidate Lebanese people by taking punitive financial action against opponents of the Western-backed Beirut government.

U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday ordered a freeze on the U.S. assets of anyone Washington deems to be undermining Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government. Those targeted were not identified.

Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and Syria, is at the heart of a Lebanese opposition which has been demanding veto power in the cabinet.

The governing coalition has accused Hezbollah and its allies of wanting to mount a coup that would open the door to a return of Syrian control of Lebanon.

Nasrallah said Bush was doing all he could to protect the governing coalition. Siniora's government had become a part of U.S. national security, he said.

"Bush comes out and says: 'You Lebanese, whoever shakes the Siniora government, I will act against legally, financially and economically'," Nasrallah said in a televised address to supporters in the Bekaa Valley town of Baalbek.

"Why this intimidation of Lebanese?" he asked. The speech was also televised on Hezbollah's al-Manar station.

"Bush ... considers the Siniora government part of American national security and part of American policy. Oh Lebanese, we are demanding a government which (represents) Lebanese national security and not American national security."

Bush's executive order targets anyone considered to be fuelling violence in Lebanon or contributing to what it called "Syrian interference" in the country.