Nasrallah was killed in a huge Israeli air strike on Beirut's southern suburbs on September 27, as Israel scaled up its campaign against the Iran-backed group following almost a year of cross-border hostilities.

After decades at the helm of the group once seen as invincible, the killing of the charismatic leader sent shockwaves across Lebanon and the wider region.

"After security conditions prevented holding a funeral" during two months of all-out war that ended on November 27, Hezbollah has decided to hold "on February 23 a grand... public funeral" for Nasrallah, Naim Qassem said in a televised speech.

"We hope that it will be a grand funeral procession befitting this great personality," he said.

Qassem also confirmed for the first time that leading official Hashem Safieddine had been chosen to succeed Nasrallah before he too was killed in an Israeli raid in October.

Safieddine will be buried "as Secretary-General" or leader of Hezbollah, because "we had... elected His Eminence Sayyed Hashem as Secretary-General... but he was martyred on October 3, a day or two before the announcement", Qassem said.

The group will hold Safieddine's funeral on the same day as Nasrallah's.

Nasrallah will be buried on the outskirts of Beirut "in a plot of land we chose between the old and new airport roads", while Safieddine will be buried in his hometown of Deir Qanun in southern Lebanon, he said.

Nasrallah had been temporarily buried elsewhere due to security concerns, he said.

Shiite Muslim rites provide for such a temporary burial when circumstances prevent a proper funeral or the deceased cannot be buried where they wished.

Last October, a source close to the group had told AFP that Nasrallah had been buried in a secret location, for fear Israel would target a large funeral.

- 'Israeli aggression' -

The deeply religious Safieddine, a cleric with family ties to Nasrallah, had been widely viewed as the most likely candidate for the party's top job.

Safieddine, a member of the group's governing Shura Council, had strong ties to Iran after undergoing religious studies in the Islamic republic's holy city of Qom.

During his speech Sunday, Qassem also pressed Lebanese authorities to pressure Israel to stop ceasefire violations.

The Israeli army missed a January 26 deadline to complete its withdrawal from southern Lebanon and has since launched strikes there. It now has until February 18 to withdraw.

Israel had made clear it had no intention of meeting the initial deadline, charging that the Lebanese army had not fulfilled its end of the bargain.

The Lebanese authorities have also accused Israel of violating the agreement.

"The Lebanese state is fully responsible for following up, pressuring and trying to prevent as much as it can, through sponsors and international pressure, this violation and this Israeli aggression," Qassem said.

Under the terms of the November 27 ceasefire, the Lebanese army is to deploy in the south as Hezbollah pulls its forces back north of the Litani River, some 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the border.

The militant group is also required to dismantle any remaining military infrastructure it has in the south.