The pro-Syrian Hezbollah coalition claimed yesterday it had a clear mandate to keep its weapons in defiance of international calls for disarmament after winning round two of Lebanon's elections by a landslide. The Hezbollah and the rival Amal, campaigning on a pledge to keep up armed resistance against Israel, won all 23 seats in southern Lebanon in Sunday's vote, Interior Minister Hassan Sabaa said.The disarmament issue could prove to be a headache for the government that emerges after the elections, with a UN resolution last year sponsored by France and the United States calling for all militias to be stripped of their weapons. In the first parliamentary poll since Syria was forced by intense global pressure to end its 29-year military presence in Lebanon in April, the two groups maintained their grip on the volatile southern region still intermittently rocked by border clashes with Israel. "The south has declared, clearly and before international observers, its backing for the resistance as a path for the past, present and future," said Amal's influential chief Nabih Berri, also Lebanon's parliamentary speaker. "Even the rival candidates are resistance fighters," he said at a press conference, rejecting calls for the disarming of Lebanon's "resistance."