Hezbollah's separate paramilitary infrastructure across Lebanon contributes to the erosion of the state's monopoly on the use of force and represents a "threat to regional peace," a UN envoy said Thursday.

UN Middle East envoy Terje Roed Larsen told the Security Council that Hezbollah, the powerful Iranian-backed Shiite militia, "maintains a massive paramilitary infrastructure separate from the state."

He added that this had "an adverse effect" on the Lebanese government's monopoly on the use of force and "constitutes a threat to regional peace and security."