BEIRUT - Following the assassination of an anti-Syrian cabinet minister in Beirut on Tuesday, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora called on Lebanese to unify together, and warned of "sedition" against Lebanon.

Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, 34, was shot down in a Christian suburb of Beirut. Speaking on national television, Siniora linked Gemayel's slaying to the issue that sparked the current coalition crisis involving Hezbollah: the formation of an international tribunal to try suspects in the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

"I pledge to you that your blood will not go in vain," Siniora said, eulogizing Gemayel. "We will not let the murderers control the fate of Lebanon and the future of its children."

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Siniora added that Gemayal's assassination would make Lebanon more determined to set up an international court to try the suspected killers of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri. Leaders around the world responded to news of Gemayel's assassination with similiar calls of their own.

"It is time for all the Lebanese to rally around the international tribunal," Siniora said. "This attack against a symbol of freedom in Lebanon ... makes us more determined to set up the international court, the tribunal that would stop the criminals and is the means to protect all Lebanese."

Siniora added, "I call on the Lebanese ... to be alert to the sedition planned for them."

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council on Tuesday approved plans for a special international court to try suspects Hariri's assassination, diplomats said.

The action by the 15-nation council, in the form of a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, cleared the way for the plans to be submitted to the Lebanese government for its formal approval.

The Security Council also unequivocally condemned Gemayal's assassination.

The Lebanese anti-Syrian parliamentary majority announced that it would be holding a rally in memory of Gemayel on Thursday afternoon in the capital, and declared three days of mourning.

Gemayel's father, former President Amin Gemayel, urged supporters to remain calm and avoid retribution.

"I have one wish, that tonight be a night of prayer to contemplate the meaning of this martyrdom and how to protect this country," Amin Gemayel told reporters outside a hospital where the body of his son was taken.

"I call on all those who appreciate Pierre's martyrdom to preserve his cause and for all of us to remain at the service of Lebanon. We don't want reactions and revenge," he said.

Witnesses said Gemayel was shot in his car in Jdeideh, a Christian neighborhood, his constituency on the northern edge of Beirut. The witnesses said a car rammed Gemayel's car from behind and then an assassin stepped out and shot him at point blank range.

Gemayel was rushed to a nearby hospital, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. and Voice of Lebanon, the Phalange Party mouthpiece reported. He was later declared dead. Some 300 Phalange supporters gathered outside the hospital as he died.

The shooting - at a time when Lebanese political and sectarian tensions already are at fever pitch - seemed certain to intensify the tensions, regardless of who was responsible.

Gemayel was a member of the Phalange party and supporter of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, which is locked in a power struggle with pro-Syrian factions led by Hezbollah.

Lebanon is in the throes of a political storm pitting the anti-Syrian ruling majority against the pro-Damascus opposition. The political tension threatens to spill into street confrontations.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said Tuesday his depleted cabinet was legitimate despite the resignation of six pro-Syrian ministers, and warned that any anti-government protests could turn violent.

Pro-Syrian Hezbollah and its allies are preparing to take to the streets to topple Siniora's government, which they accuse of being allied with the United States, arguing that it has lost its legitimacy since Shi'ite Muslims are no longer represented.

The depleted cabinet last week approved draft United Nations statutes for a tribunal to try the killers of former prime minister Rafik Hariri despite the resignation of the six ministers.

Many Lebanese blame Syria for the killing of Hariri in a suicide truck bombing in Beirut last year. Damascus denies involvement. A UN commission investigating the assassination has implicated senior Lebanese and Syrian security officials.

Hariri's son, Saad Hariri, said Tuesday that "the hand of Syria is all over" the assassination.

Gemayel is the fifth anti-Syrian figure to be assassinated in the past two years in Lebanon. Rafik Hariri was killed in a massive car bombing in February 2005. The journalist and activist Samir Kassir and former Communist Party leader George Hawi were killed in separate car bombings in June last year. And lawmaker and newspaper manager Gibran Tueni was killed in a car bombing in December.

First elected to parliament in 2005, Gemayel was believed to be the youngest legislator in the legislature, where anti-Syrian groups dominate.

He hailed from a prominent family of politicians. His father served as president between 1982 and 1988 and his grandfather, the late Pierre Gemayel, led the right-wing Christian Phalanage Party that fielded the largest Christian militia during the 1975-90 civil war between Christians and Muslims

Amin Gemayel is the current leader of the party.

Pierre was a rising star in the party and expected to carry the mantle of the political family to the next generation.