An explosion, apparently from a bomb-rigged car, rocked Beirut's seafront Wednesday, killing an anti-Syrian lawmaker and nine others, a TV station aligned with anti-Syrian parties reported. At least eleven people were wounded in the explosion.

The slain lawmaker, Walid Eido, is the seventh anti-Syrian figure killed in the past two years, starting with the February 2005 death of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a massive Beirut suicide car bombing. Many Lebanese have accused Syria of being behind the slayings, a claim Damascus denies.

The bomb, concealed in a parked vehicle, detonated as Eido's car drove by near the seafront in the Lebanese capital. One of his sons was among the dead. At least 11 people were wounded.

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Eido, 64, belonged to the majority anti-Syrian parliamentary bloc of Saad al-Hariri, which controls the government.

He had been a vocal opponent of Syrian influence in Lebanon.

The Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation TV station said car bombs had been used before in the assassinations of opponents of Syria over the past two years.

Eido was killed just three days after a United Nations Security Council resolution came into effect setting up an international tribunal to try suspects in Hariri's assassination.

The explosion was the latest in a series to hit Lebanon in the last three weeks as Lebanese troops battled Islamic militants in a Palestinian refugee camp in the northern part of the country.

The United States and France deplored Eido's assassination. "We stand with the people of Lebanon and Prime Minister (Fuad) Siniora's government as they battle extremists who are trying to derail Lebanon's march to peace, prosperity and a lasting democracy," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House National Security Council.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said his country stood by Lebanon "in the face of these repeated attempts at destabilization". He urged the Lebanese to resume dialogue.

The blast hit near an amusement park and a football club, setting a car ablaze and shattering windows at a nearby restaurant. It hurled the bodies of Eido and his son across the road and into a football ground, witnesses said.

Eido's death was likely to fuel tension between Siniora's Western-backed government and the pro-Damascus opposition led by the Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah group.

Parliamentarian deputy Wael Abou-Faour accused Syria of killing his colleague.

"Walid Eido was a symbol of democracy in Lebanon. (He) was assassinated because there is a decision by the Syrian regime to terminate the March 14 bloc," Abou-Faour told Al Arabiya television, referring to the Hariri-led coalition. "The Assad regime did not have enough of the blood of the free in Lebanon."

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who is a pro-Syrian ally of Hezbollah, condemned the killing.

"No individual, group, organization or party using terrorism and organized crime will be able to make Lebanon an arena for unrest, strife, wars and score-settling," he said.

Tension was already high in Lebanon, where the army has been battling Islamist militants at a Palestinian refugee camp in the north for more than three weeks.

In November of last year, anti-Syrian Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, 34, was shot down in a Christian suburb of Beirut. Speaking on national television, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora linked Gemayel's slaying to the issue that sparked a 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.