Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry issued an advisory to its citizens to refrain temporarily from travelling to Lebannon.

Citizens that are already in Lebannon are advised to abstain from travelling inside the country and contact the embassy in the capital of Beirut as soon as possible by phone (961/5453 658) or by e-mail  the Foreign Ministry statement said.

The travel alert was issued as sectarian fighting between Shi'ite gunmen from Hezbollah and predominantly Sunni government forces on May 8, after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah qualified the Western-backed government of "declaraing war" on the militia by asking it to dismantle its private fibre-optic communications network.

Fighting broke out immediately after Nasrallah's televised statement, reminiscent of ebanon's bloody 15-year civil war, which split its capital along sectarian lines. At least 11 people have been killed and more than 20 injured as Hezbollah militantsseized control of several Beirut neighborhoods, the Associated Press reported.

The UN urged restraint, while government coalition leader Saad al-Hariri issued a televised appeal to Hezbollah "to stop the slide towards civil war, to stop the language of arms and lawlessness". Hezbollah officials later rejected the overture, according to the group's al-Manar television, UK newspaper The Guardian said.

The cabinet of Fuad Saniora, allied with the US and Saudi Arabia, has only a slim majority in parliament and has been locked in a power struggle with Hezbollah, which has kept government at a standstill and the country without a president since November, the AP reported.