BEIRUT - Thousands of Hezbollah-led protesters gathered in downtown Beirut on Sunday, demanding Prime Minister Fuad Saniora cede power to the opposition or step down.

The demonstration could be a tipping point in Lebanon's burgeoning political crisis, ten days after a coalition of largely pro-Syrian opposition groups launched a series of rallies against Saniora's anti-Syrian, U.S.-backed government.

Lebanese combat troops and armed police sealed off major roads and added more layers of barbed wire around the prime minister's sprawling downtown complex, where he has been holed up with most of his ministers since Dec. 1.

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The political unrest has split the country along dangerous sectarian lines, with most Sunni Muslims supporting the Sunni prime minister and Shiite Muslims backing the militant group Hezbollah. Christian factions are split between the two camps.

Thousands of demonstrators camped out in two downtown Beirut squares overnight, and thousands more joined the crowd early Sunday. Several hundred tents have lined the area for more than a week.

Many of the protesters waved Lebanese or Hezbollah flags, as loudspeakers blasted anthems in support of the guerrilla group. Hezbollah security agents wearing white caps fanned out in the crowd.

Lebanon's political crisis began after talks over a national unity Cabinet collapsed, and Hezbollah's two ministers and four allies resigned from the Cabinet and joined the opposition. It erupted Nov. 21 with the assassination of anti-Syrian politician Pierre Gemayel, followed by a national strike, his funeral and the opposition sit-in.

Street protests have since paralyzed the core of Beirut. A Shiite Muslim supporter of the opposition was shot dead in a Sunni Muslim neighborhood on his way home from protests a week ago.

Saniora has refused to quit and has received hundreds of supporters daily at his office complex to counter the opposition protests and sit-ins outside. He and Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah have exchanged unprecedented accusations and insults.

Tension had been brewing for months, and relations between the two camps deteriorated after the Israel-Hezbollah war last summer and a U.N. draft for the creation of an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005
assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri.

The summer war ravaged parts of Lebanon. Hezbollah's fight against Israel sent its support among Shiites skyrocketing, emboldening it to grab more political power.

Hezbollah now accuses Saniora and some elements in his government of working with Israel to destroy the guerrilla force. Pro-government groups, in turn, resent Hezbollah for sparking the war by snatching two Israeli soldiers. They, along with the United States, accuse Hezbollah's Syrian and Iranian backers of seeking to overthrow the government.

On Sunday, the crowd of protesters gathered under a giant banner depicting Saniora kissing U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the cheek on a visit to Beirut during the war. Written in English on it was: "Thanks Condy."

Hezbollah and its allies fault the U.S. for refusing to push the U.N. Security Council to call an immediate cease-fire. American officials said they wanted to make sure a truce would stick before pushing for an end to the fighting, which lasted 34 days and killed more than 850 people on both sides.

President Emile Lahoud on Saturday refused to endorse the draft accord sent to him by Saniora's divided Cabinet to create the international tribunal. He maintained that the remaining Saniora Cabinet had lost its constitutional legitimacy, an argument the prime minister has disputed because Cabinet meetings still have the quorum necessary to make decisions.

The president's action was certain to intensify tension. Mass protests also followed the 2005 slaying of Hariri, which forced Syria to end a nearly three-decade military occupation of Lebanon.

Lahoud had been expected to reject the tribunal agreement sent to him Nov. 27.

The accord calls for a U.N.-organized court to try the suspected assassins of Hariri, an opponent of Syrian influence who was killed by a truck bomb along with 22 others in February 2005.

A UN investigation has said the attack's complexity suggested the Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services played a role in the assassination. Syria denies involvement.





Hundreds of thousands of opposition protesters, led by the militant group Hezbollah, are expected to stage a rally on Sunday aimed at ousting Lebanon's anti-Syrian government.

Opposition supporters have been camping out in central Beirut since December 1, paralyzing the heart of the capital and vowing not to budge until Prime Minister Fouad Siniora bows to their demands for a government of national unity.

"Opposition to rally largest crowd today," pro-opposition Ad-Diyar newspaper's frontpage headline read Sunday. It said the opposition would escalate its campaign from Monday by calling strikes that would lead to a civil disobedience campaign.

Thousands of Lebanese soldiers and police tightened security in the capital hours before the rally. One Shi'ite protester has been killed and several people hurt in shooting incidents, riots and clashes between supporters of both sides over the past week.

Lebanese opposition forces are planning to shut down the Beirut Airport and to block the main entrances to the capital on Monday as part of the escalated protests against Siniora's government.

The Lebanese al-Akhbar daily, identified with pro-Syrian opposition, reported Saturday "Monday will be a new day for Lebanon," and that government offices will not operate that day.

Siniora and the Sunni-led ruling majority refuse to give in, accusing the Shi'ite Hezbollah of trying to stage a coup in the wake of their 34-day war against Israel earlier this year.

Commentators have warned that the worsening stand-off could degenerate into wide-scale violence in a country that is still trying to recover from its last civil war that spanned 1975 through 1990.

However, political sources in Siniora's government say no political solution or compromise is in sight. Several pro-government rallies were held in various areas across Lebanon on Saturday, highlighting the deep divisions among the Lebanese.

A U.S. State Department official on Saturday accused Syria and Iran, Hezbollah's allies, of trying to destabilize Lebanon and said the situation was of "very significant concern".

Dark clouds
Saudi Arabia strongly backs the Siniora government and is worried by the rising influence of Shi'ite power Iran through support for Lebanese group Hezbollah, Shi'ite parties in Iraq and Tehran's alliance with Damascus.

"Our Arab region is surrounded by a number of dangers, like a powder keg ready to explode," King Abdullah said, adding that "dark clouds" were threatening civil strife in Lebanon.

The struggle is between two broad alliances, with the ruling coalition made up of Sunni Muslim, Druze and some Christian parties confronting Hezbollah, another Shi'ite group and a Christian party headed by former General Michel Aoun.

"Mr prime minister go home, it's better for you because you cannot captain the ship," Aoun said on Saturday, repeating opposition accusations that Siniora was a U.S. vassal.

When the opposition launched their protest 10 days ago, hundreds of thousands took to the street in a country with an estimated population of around four million.

In the following days there have been regular rallies in the tent city that has sprung up in two central squares but no further mass mobilization of opposition forces. Sunday's protest is due to start at 3 P.M.

Lebanon's pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud refused on Saturday to endorse plans for the court, saying the depleted cabinet had acted unconstitutionally last month when it had moved to approve the project.