BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanese politician Ahmad al-Assaad freely acknowledged receiving foreign backing for his campaign to build a Lebanese Shi'ite alternative to Hezbollah movement headed by Sheikh Hasan Nasrallah.

"I am a man on a mission," said Assaad, scion of a family which once held wide influence in a Shi'ite community now dominated by the Iran-backed Islamist group Hezbollah and its ally Amal, both firm friends of neighbouring Syria.

Aiming to break Hezbollah and Amal's near duopoly over Shi'ite representation, it's no surprise that Assaad's Lebanese Option group has found international friends among states that share the aim of curbing Iran's influence in the country.

Although Lebanese politicians are widely assumed to receive support from foreign governments that compete for influence in the country, acknowledging such backing is rare.

"I don't deny this at all," Assaad said in an interview this week, responding candidly to a question on whether his group had received support from states such as Saudi Arabia.

"We have to create a balance. If we don't have tools to offer the people, how can they take a stand and make a challenge?" said Assaad, declining to give details on his backers.

The Lebanon Option is contesting 13 of the 27 seats reserved for Shi'ites in Lebanon's 128-member parliament in a legislative election on June 7. Hezbollah is fielding 10 candidates.

The vote will decide whether an alliance of anti-Syrian factions backed by countries including Saudi Arabia and the United States hold on to their parliamentary majority or lose to a pro-Damascus coalition including Hezbollah and Amal.

Assaad's father, Kamel, held the position in the 1980s.