"We have no interest in an open war... because this would harm Hezbollah, Arab and Islamic causes," Siniora told Future News in an interview on Friday.

The channel is owned by pro-Western parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri.

Siniora's comments came in response to a speech by Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah at the funeral of top Hezbollah commander Imad Mughnieh, who was killed in Damascus on Tuesday in a car bombing blamed on Israel.

Nasrallah said on Thursday that if Israel wanted open war, "then let the whole world listen: Let this war be open".

Siniora added: "We have endured a similar experience in the past and we do not want it to be repeated," referring to the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in the summer of 2006.

In the interview Siniora also condemned Mughnieh's killing.

Israel denied any involvement in the death of the Shiite leader who was one of the founding members of armed wing of Hezbollah and was on America's Most Wanted list for his role in a string of attacks in the 1980s and 1990s.

Mughnieh was suspected of involvement in attacks against US and Israeli targets, including the bombing of the US marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, as well as a spate of kidnapping of Westerners in Lebanon.

His killing in the Syrian capital came during a period of high tension between Lebanon's rival political factions, deadlocked over the election of a new president after the term of pro-Damascus Emile Lahoud ended in November.