Tripoli, Lebanon ? Lebanon’s pro-Western prime minister on Saturday rejected opposition criticism over planeloads of U.S. military aid pouring in to shore up the country’s army in its battle with Islamic militants in a Palestinian refugee camp.

Three more U.S. transport planes with military supplies arrived from Kuwait as part of an international airlift. A total of eight military transport planes have landed at Beirut airport since late Thursday – four from the U.S. Air Force, two from the United Arab Emirates and two from Jordan.

A four-day-old truce between the Lebanese army and al-Qaida inspired Fatah Islam militants mostly held up on Saturday despite sporadic gunfire in the Nahr el-Bared camp on the outskirts of the northern port city of Tripoli. But the Lebanese army has been gearing up for a renewed fight, rolling more troops into place around the camp already ringed by hundreds of soldiers backed by artillery and tanks.

The military confirmed it has received supplies from Arab countries and the U.S. but gave no details. Media reports said they included ammunition, body armor, helmets and night-vision equipment.

U.S. military officials have said Washington will send eight planeloads of supplies, part of a package that had been agreed on but that the Lebanese government asked to be expedited.

The U.S. aid is sensitive in a nation deeply divided between supporters of the pro-Western government and an opposition backed by America’s Mideast foes, Iran and Syria. The opposition, led by the Shiite Hezbollah, accuses Prime Minister Fuad Saniora’s government of being too closely allied to Washington.

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah warned Friday that Lebanon was being dragged into a U.S. war against al-Qaida that would destabilize the country.

But Saniora told the Arabic service of the British Broadcasting Crop. on Saturday that the aid was not a “crime” and that the weapons had been offered by different countries a year ago.

“Don’t we want to protect Lebanon? Who defends Lebanon?” Saniora said, adding that Nasrallah’s criticism reflected a desire to “keep the army weak in order to justify the presence of other armies” – a reference to Syria, Hezbollah’s close ally which controlled Lebanon for nearly three decades.