Crowds demand government quits

Hundreds of thousands of Hizbollah-led protesters rallied yesterday at the doorstep of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora to force the resignation of his US-backed government. "We want a clean government," one banner read. "Siniora out, we want a free, free government," the crowd chanted.

Hizbollah, Lebanon's most powerful Shi'ite Muslim group, and its pro-Syrian allies had called on Lebanese from across the country to take part in the protest in the capital Beirut, to be followed by an indefinite sit-in near the government offices.

Hizbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, has branded the government a US puppet.

"I call on the prime minister and his ministers to quit," Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun said to the cheers of protesters in downtown Beirut. Speaking on behalf of the opposition, Mr Aoun demanded a national unity government.

A senior opposition source said opposition supporters were imposing an open-ended blockade to the government offices where Mr Siniora and and most of his ministers were holed up.

"Tents are being put up for protesters to encircle the government's headquarters to stop movements to and from it until Siniora falls," the source said.

Large numbers of security forces, backed by armoured troop carriers, were deployed. Scores of soldiers, using barbed wire and metal barriers, cordoned off the complex housing the government's offices in downtown Beirut.

Mr Siniora and many ministers were inside while metres away, the crowds massed, waving red-and-white Lebanese flags under banners demanding a government of national unity.

Sources close to the organisers estimated the crowd at more than one million, and Hizbollah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Kassem said before the protests the campaign would continue until Mr Siniora's cabinet fell.

"This government will not take Lebanon to the abyss. We have several steps if this government does not respond but I tell them you will not be able to rule Lebanon with an American administration," he told Hizbollah's al-Manar television.