Both the U.S. and Israel have described the trip as 'intentionally provocative.'
On the road heading south, schoolchildren handed out leaflets on the best route to Bint Jbeil, a border village in south Lebanon's Shiite heartland where the Iranian leader was to speak later in the afternoon.
Ahmadinejad arrived in Lebanon yesterday to a rapturous welcome organized by Hezbollah, the powerful Shiite militant group backed by Iran. The second day of his state visit demonstrates Iran's support for Hezbollah's fight against Israel.
Israel, however, has described the Iranian President's visit as a 'landlord inspecting his domain'.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad flashes a V sign during a rally organized by Hezbollah in the southern border town of Bint Jbeil, Lebanon
In the stadium in Bint Jbeil where the Iranian president will speak, thousands waved the flags of Iran and Hezbollah.
The village was among the hardest-hit areas during the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war, and oil-rich Iran invested heavily in helping to rebuild it.
Days after Israel ended its two-decade occupation of south Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah's leader gave a victory speech in Bint Jbeil in which he said Israel is "weaker than a spider's web" - a phrase that adorns a wall of the stadium along with photographs of weeping Israeli soldiers.
Ali Daboush, a 35-year-old Shiite who works in Saudi Arabia, said he traveled home to Lebanon just to see the Iranian leader.
'He liberated this land. It was thanks to him," Daboush said. "No Arab leader has done what he has done.'
Ahmadinejad's visit has underscored the eroding position of pro-Western factions in Lebanon.
More broadly, it has suggested that the competition over influence in Lebanon may be tipping toward Iran and its ally Syria, away from the United States and it Arab allies Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Bint Jbeil, about two miles (four kilometers) from the border, is dubbed 'the capital of resistance' because it was a center for Hezbollah guerrilla action against Israel during the Jewish state's 18-year occupation of the south, which ended in 2000.
The Iranian leader was also set to visit the village of Qana, where an Israeli airstrike in 2006 killed dozens.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev slammed the trip.
'Iran's domination of Lebanon through its proxy Hezbollah has destroyed any chance for peace, has turned Lebanon into an Iranian satellite and made Lebanon a hub for regional terror and instability,' he said.
On an Israeli road leading up to the border area, a few onlookers stopped their cars to snap pictures or peer through binoculars at the other side.
Ahmadinejad has sought to depict his country as an ally of all Lebanese, not just Hezbollah.
Iran, whose ties to the group date back nearly 30 years, funds Hezbollah to the tune of millions of dollars a year and is believed to supply much of its arsenal. Hezbollah boasts widespread support among Shiites and virtually runs a state-within-a-state in Shiite areas.
On Wednesday, crowds lined the streets along Beirut's airport road - controlled by Hezbollah - to welcome the Iranian leader, throwing flower petals and sweets at his motorcade. He moves under tight security, with a convoy of some 40 cars and helicopters buzzing overhead.
But Ahmadinejad's splashy arrival exacerbated fears among many Lebanese - particularly Sunnis and Christians - that Iran and Hezbollah are seeking to impose their will on the country and possibly pull Lebanon into a conflict with Israel.
Many say the trip could aggravate tensions in a country with a long history of sectarian strife.
Washington has come out strongly against the visit. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reiterated American concerns about Iran's nuclear program and its 'support of terrorism.'
'So when the Iranian president goes to Lebanon, and we know that they are supporting financially and in every other way Hezbollah, which is on the border of Israel and the border of the Palestinian areas, then that is a volatile situation,' she said in an interview aired Thursday on ABC.
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