Lebanon's opposition will call an end to anti-government protests later on Tuesday, a senior opposition source, after a day of clashes during a general strike killed three people and injured more than 130.

"The opposition will call for a halt to protests," the source said, adding the opposition would shortly issue a statement after a meeting.

The strike was called by the Hezbollah-led opposition in a bid to topple Prime Minister Fuad Siniora's Western-backed government.

	Advertisement

Lebanon's anti-Syrian majority leaders Tuesday accused the opposition of staging a "coup" against the government by blocking major roads.

Thousands of protesters blocked main roads in Beirut and around the country with rubble and burning tires as the strike began.

"This is a coup d'etat. This is a revolt in all sense of the word," Christian leader Samir Geagea told the Lebanese television station LBCI.

In a televised speech, Siniora vowed to remain strong and united with the Lebanese people against the violence. "We will stay together against intimidation. We will stand together against strife," he said.

"Today's general strike turned into actions and harassment that overstepped all limits and rekindled memories of times of strife, war and hegemony," Siniora said.

He hinted that the government might take stronger measures.

"The duty of the army and security forces does not allow any flexibility or compromise regarding the public interest, order and civic peace," Siniora declared.

The street trouble prompted him to delay his departure for an international conference on aid for Lebanon to be held in Paris on Thursday. He did not say if he still planned to go.

Lebanese troops tried to keep rival groups apart, but police said a member of the Christian, pro-government Lebanese Forces party was shot dead in the town of Batroun, north of Beirut.

Protests erupt across country
Two people were shot and killed in the mainly Sunni Muslim northern port of Tripoli. Police said gunfire wounded around 50 people, many of them in the Christian towns.

Police said 133 people were hurt in a day of skirmishes around the country. Stone-throwing crowds fought in Beirut and Christian areas to the north, even though troops caught in the middle fired in the air to deter them.

Among the wounded were five government supporters, one of whom sustained serious injuries, in a gunfight with opposition followers in northern Lebanon, security sources said.

They said members of the pro-government Future movement and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) exchanged fire in the village of Halba.

In the ancient Christian town of Byblos, three people were wounded when a gunman fired on protesters, security sources said. Soldiers arrested the gunman and seized weapons from his house.

Two protesters were wounded in a similar shooting in Batroun, and a member of a pro-Syrian opposition group was seriously wounded in an incident near the mountain village of Sofar.

In other demonstrations across Lebanon, some scuffles broke out between protesters and pro-government loyalists, especially in Christian areas.

Protesters in Beirut, north, south and east Lebanon took to the streets at around 6 A.M. and began blocking roads. Smoke from burning tires billowed over the capital.

Hezbollah organizers, their faces covered in black masks, prowled on motorcycles, walkie-talkies clamped to their mouths.

Most main roads inside Beirut and leading into the city were closed, as were highways linking the capital to north and south Lebanon, as well as to the Syrian capital Damascus.

Several Arab and international airlines suspended flights into Beirut after the roads to Lebanon's only international airport and to the port in Beirut were blocked.

The airport remained operational, even though few workers showed up and passengers were unable to get there, sources at the facility said.

The national flag carrier Middle East Airlines (MEA) made no immediate announcement on whether it would suspend operations or not.

Many shops, schools and businesses were closed in Beirut but it was hard to tell whether this was in support of the strike or because people could not get to work past blazing barricades.

Lebanese security forces made sporadic efforts to open roads, but made little headway due to the crowds of protesters. They did not intervene in Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold.

"This government only understands force and today is only a small lesson," protester Jamil Wahb told Reuters in the southern mostly Shi'ite suburb. "We will stay here until they give in."

Opposition sources say protests will last for several days. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah told his supporters on Monday to be ready for more steps to press opposition demands.

Siniora's government has shrugged off the demands and is instead preparing for an international aid conference in Paris on Thursday that it hopes will yield billions of dollars for Lebanon's debt-laden economy.

Officials denied earlier reports that Siniora had left Lebanon for Paris a few hours before the strike began. "We are still here [in Beirut]," an aide said.

"Siniora out, down with the government," Hezbollah followers chanted as they lit tires in downtown Beirut, close to the prime minister's office.

The opposition's campaign, which started on Dec. 1 with an open-ended protest in central Beirut, has been largely peaceful, though one anti-government protester was shot dead in December.

Nasrallah said some government politicians wanted violence in Lebanon, which is still recovering from its 1975-1990 civil war. "We will move and if you want to kill us in the street, kill us," he said. "We will not draw our weapons against you."

The standoff has raised Sunni-Shi'ite tensions among Muslims in Lebanon, which has a delicate sectarian power-sharing system.

The government is backed by Sunni leader Saad al-Hariri and the opposition includes Shi'ite groups Hezbollah and Amal. Christians are split between the two camps.

Leaders allied to the government had called on Lebanese to go to work.

Chirac: Protests will deter international donors
French President Jacques Chirac said on Tuesday anti-government
protests in Lebanon could discourage the international community from granting financial aid to Beirut at a donors' conference scheduled for Thursday.

Chirac said in an interview with France 24 television and Lebanese television that Lebanon's financial situation was "very serious, very grave", adding: "practically, the Lebanese government has no more money."

"Lebanon has an urgent need to be financially supported and helped," Chirac said.

"It is clear that the behavior ... of those who are using it to create social difficulties at the same moment when we are gathering for this conference, does not encourage those who want to help to give Lebanon the means to survive," he said

Donor countries are expected to pledge money, possibly in the billions of dollars, for Lebanon's debt-laden economy at Thursday's conference in Paris.

Meanwhile, the United States also voiced concern about the protests, calling on all sides to exercise restraint and settle their differences peacefully.

The U.S. State Department blamed the violence on Lebanese factions aligned with Syria, and said the protests aimed to distract from an aid-donors conference on Thursday that could produce billions of dollars for the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

"The United States is deeply concerned about developments today in Lebanon," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement.

"These factions are trying to use violence, threats, and intimidation to impose their political will on Lebanon," he added.

Citing dangers of sectarian clashes, McCormack said the United States urged "all parties to use peaceful and constitutional means to debate the political issues before them, and to exercise restraint."

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to Paris for the donors conference, where U.S. officials have said they will make a "substantial" contribution in a gesture of support for the embattled Siniora government.