The Lebanese Army declared a curfew in Beirut on Thursday, after four people were killed and 35 injured in clashes between supporters and opponents of the Lebanese government.

The clashes began Thursday afternoon on a Beirut university campus, but soon spread to additional neighborhoods throughout Beirut. They included live fire, stone throwing, and beatings that included the use of batons.

Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah blamed the clashes on his political rivals, saying those who opened fire are acting in Israel's name. "Anyone who turns a weapon on his Lebanese brothers due to differences of opinion, or shoots him, is in my opinion Israeli," he said. "The weapon used in Lebanon is Israeli."

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Nasrallah made the comments during a telephone interview that was broadcast on Al-Manar. While he did not name those he believes are responsible for the fire, he hinted that it was his opponents in the anti-Syrian coalition that currently controls the cabinet and parliament.

"There are those in Lebanon that have no political value except in the shadow of bedlam and civil war," he said. "I call on the security forces to publish the names of those who fired.

The Hezbollah leader called on all sides to cease fire, despite his claims that his opponents placed snipers in several buildings with the intent of harming opposition members.

According to Nasrallah, his associates have information that shows the coalition intended for there to be armed clashes at this time.

The violence coincided with reports coming from the French capital that an international donors' conference pledged more than $7.6 billion in aid to bolster the Western-backed government and help the country's ailing economy.

Lebanese president calls on political figures to withdraw their supporters from the streets
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud called on all political figures to withdraw their supporters from the streets and not to exacerbate the situation. Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabiah Beri added his voice to Lahoud's call.

Lebanese Parliament Majority Leader Sa'ad Hariri also called for restraint, saying the events are intended to sour the atmosphere in Lebanon at during the Paris conference, in which Prime Minister Fouad Siniora is participating.

Soldiers firing shots in the air dispersed the rioters at the Beirut Arab University in the Tarik el-Jadideh neighborhood, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Red Cross ambulances took the injured to hospital.

The trouble in the Sunni Muslim neighborhood spilled over to nearby streets, where people from outside the university joined in the fight. Young men carrying sticks and wearing hard hats arrived in the area and started throwing stones at each other. Some in the crowd smashed parked car windows and ripped doors and furniture before setting several cars on fire.

More troops arrived in armored vehicles as soldiers fired volleys of automatic rifles in the air as residents of the area fled for cover. The army closed the road on the southern edge of the Lebanese capital.

Officials said the riot started after students belonging to the Shiite Muslim Amal Movement, which supports the Hezbollah-led opposition, argued with members of the pro-government Future Movement over the responsibility for Tuesday's general strike. Three people were fatally shot and more than 170 people wounded in clashes during the strike, which pro-Hezbollah opposition had called in a bid to bring down the U.S.-backed government.

Hezbollah students later joined the fight at the university. But the Shiite Muslim militant group, in a statement on its television station, accused pro-government factions of provoking the clashes and called on its supporters to get off the streets to avoid a strife which is being inflamed by pro-government groups.

The opposition has staged two months of demonstrations and sit-ins in a bid to topple the government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora. The prime minister has refused the opposition's demand for veto-wielding share of the cabinet.

The confrontation has taken sectarian lines, a dangerous development for a country that fought a civil war in 1975-90. Shiite Muslims support the opposition; Sunni Muslims tend to support the prime minister; and Christian parties are divided between the two camps.