UNITED NATIONS - The UN Security Council on Wednesday quickly approved a request from Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora for help in investigating the assassination of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel.

The 15-nation council unanimously approved a letter inviting the UN commission investigating the 2005 murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri to also help the Lebanese authorities bring Gemayel's killers to justice.

has asked the United Nations to help Beirut investigate Gemayel's assassination, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Wednesday.

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Lebanese Prime Minister Siniora wrote Annan on Tuesday and asked him for assistance. Annan asked the Security Council to "take appropriate action."

The UN investigation is already looking into 14 other apparently politically motivated attacks in Lebanon since Hariri's killing. Belgian Serge Brammertz, who heads the commission, has reported evidence that all 15 cases were linked in some ways.

The Security Council on Tuesday approved plans for the tribunal into Hariri's murder, a divisive issue between the rival Lebanese parties.

The action by the 15-nation council, in the form of a letter to Annan, will enable the plans to be submitted to the Lebanese government for its formal approval. Gemayel was killed in his car in Beirut after a cabinet vote to tentatively approve UN plans for the international court.

The Siniora cabinet, where anti-Syrian ministers hold most seats, voted after the resignation of six opposition ministers in a maneuver seen by many in Lebanon as an attempt to block creation of the special court.

Lebanon's pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud, protested that the cabinet vote was illegitimate. But following Gemayel's murder, the Security Council pushed ahead on Tuesday with UN approval of the plan, which now requires formal approval from the Lebanese government.

The latest assassination nonetheless pushed the Siniora government deeper into crisis. The death or resignation of two more ministers would bring it down.

Several prominent anti-Syrian leaders have blamed Syria for Gemayel's murder and warned that more assassinations could be in the works. Damascus has denied any role in the Gemayel and Hariri assassinations.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said on Tuesday Washington would support an expansion of the UN investigation.

"We are looking at exactly what steps need to be taken, but certainly we would support whatever mechanism we need to put in place," Bolton told reporters. "If you look at the pattern of these terrorist assassinations, we think this clearly fits within it."

U.S. to give Lebanon more military aid, other support
The Bush administration plans to give the fragile Lebanese government more military aid and other support, fearing more bloodshed after this week's political assassination, a senior United States official said on Wednesday.

The official said Washington was trying to sustain "a drumbeat of solidarity" with Lebanon and Prime Minister Fuad Siniora's government both politically and militarily, after Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel was gunned down Tuesday in a Christian suburb of Beirut.

"In the budget process we are looking at more funds, considerably more [for military aid]," said the official.

The U.S. official declined to provide any amounts or when the budget request would be made by the White House, but called it a "significant" increase.

Two weeks ago the United States signed a deal to provide Lebanon with $10.5 million in military aid, just months after the Lebanese army deployed to the south of the country following the July-August war with Israel.

Those funds are part of a U.S. pledge to supply Lebanon with more than $40 million in assistance to include military trucks, Humvees, ammunition, training, as well as spare parts and repairs for military equipment.

Earlier this year, the Bush administration also promised Lebanon about $250 million in humanitarian aid.

The Lebanon aid is a fraction of Washington's military grants to Israel, which totaled $2.28 billion in the 2006 fiscal year, ending on September.

President George W. Bush called Siniora to offer his support after Gemayel's assassination, the White House said on Wednesday.

He also called Gemayel's father, former Lebanese President Amin Gemayel, to offer condolences, said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House National Security Council.

In the call with Siniora, Bush pledged "to support Lebanese independence from the encroachments of Iran and Syria," Johndroe said.

Anti-Syrian leaders expects more political violence
Lebanon's most prominent anti-Syrian leader said on Wednesday he expected Damascus to assassinate more politicians after the shooting of the Christian minister raised fears of a new spasm of factional violence.

Lebanon began three days of mourning for Gemayel on Wednesday.

Druze leader Walid Jumblatt blamed Syria for Gemayel's assassination and said he expected more killings aimed at undermining parliament's ruling majority.

Syria has joined international condemnation of the killing.

"It seems the Syrian regime will continue with the assassinations. I expect more assassinations but no matter what they do, we are here and we will be victorious," Jumblatt said, echoing fears expressed by senior Christian figures.

The assassination turned Lebanon's Independence Day on Wednesday into a somber occasion. All festivities, including a military parade, were canceled.

The murder drew widespread international condemnation and many Lebanese politicians accused Syria of killing Gemayel and being responsible for the 2005 killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Syria condemned Gemayel's killing.

"It is the destabilization of Lebanon that is underway today. We must respond to this destabilization with the greatest firmness, with courage," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told France Info radio.

"Those who perpetrated and ordered these assassinations [must] be held responsible for their crimes."

His body was driven from hospital near Beirut to his hometown of Bekfaya, northeast of Beirut, where hundreds of sympathizers walked behind the coffin, raising pictures of him and waving white flags of his Phalange Party.

As the procession made its way slowly to Gemayel's family home, women on balconies threw rice at the coffin draped in his party's flag. Gemayel's funeral will take place Thursday and the anti-Syrian coalition has urged a large turnout.

"It's an indescribable feeling," mourner Fadi Jalakh, 27, told Reuters. "Those who killed him don't want the Lebanese to unite. Anything after this is going to make things worse."

Police investigating the murder said they had little to report.

"Pierre Amin Gemayel martyr of the international tribunal," Beirut's Al-Liwaa newspaper said in a front-page headline.

Following Gemayel's murder, the death or resignation of two more ministers would bring down Siniora's government.

Hariri's son Saad and his allies quickly accused Damascus of killing Gemayel in an attempt to derail the UN tribunal.