Lebanon holds funeral for slain anti-Syrian MP

Ghanen was the target of a car bomb attack in east Beirut on Wednesday that also killed four others

Thousands of Lebanese attended the funeral today of an anti-Syrian Christian legislator whose assassination this week fuelled tensions ahead of Lebanon's bitterly contested presidential election.

Antoine Ghanem, 64, was the target of a car bomb attack in east Beirut on Wednesday that also killed four others. He was the seventh anti-Syrian figure to be killed since the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

Ghanem's allies in Lebanon's anti-Syrian governing coalition blamed his death on Damascus, which condemned the attack.

Mourners flooded streets in east Beirut waving the white and green flag of the Phalange Party to which Ghanem belonged - as did former Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, who was assassinated in November.

Party anthems blared from loudspeakers as pallbearers carried Ghanem and his two bodyguards' coffins, draped in Lebanese and Phalange flags, to the Sacre Coeur church. Some mourners blamed Syria for stoking instability in Lebanon with the latest political killing.

Successor to be elected next week
"This is a crime. We want Lebanon to be free of foreign forces and to be independent. We want the Lebanese to live together as brothers, from all sects," said mourner Ghaleb Shayya.

Ghanem's death means the ruling alliance of Sunni, Christian and Druze factions now has only a slim majority of 68 in the 128-member parliament against a Shi'ite-Christian opposition bloc that includes Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran.

Parliament is due to meet on Tuesday to elect a successor to pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, but the vote is unlikely to take place for lack of a two-thirds quorum, which could be achieved only if the opposing camps reach an agreement beforehand.

Late yesterday political sources said rival leaders made contact to defuse a 10-month-old political crisis that has paralysed Lebanon's institutions, but it was very unlikely they could strike a deal in time for next week's vote.

"Things have not collapsed but more time is needed to ease tension. A compromise is still possible, eventually," said a senior opposition source.

Choosing a new president in the two months before Lahoud's term expires is seen as a vital step towards ending Lebanon's worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war. - Reuters