Protesters keep up pressure

Tens of thousands of pro-Syrian protesters pressed on with a sit-in aimed at ousting Lebanon's Western-backed government yesterday as the country's political crisis showed no sign of easing.

A Shi'ite Muslim protester was killed by gunmen in a Sunni district of Beirut as he was returning from the protests, and 12 others were wounded, security sources said.

The Shi'ite group Hizbollah and its allies in the opposition, including some Christians, held a third day of protests at a tent city in central Beirut, within earshot of the office-turned-residence of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

"Our one and only demand is a government of national unity," senior pro-Syrian Christian opposition figure Suleiman Franjieh told a jubilant crowd massed at Beirut's Riad al-Solh square.

"We will stay in this square... we will not leave until this illegal and unconstitutional government goes."

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa arrived in Beirut to meet Lebanese officials, expressing concern and saying Arab countries could not afford to be bystanders in a crisis that developed after Hizbollah's summer war with Israel.

"The stability of Lebanon and moving towards a solution that would bring about a sure future for the country is one of our concerns," he said. "All of us are worried about the situation in Lebanon."

Although the dispute started out over political differences, it is moving closer to a sectarian crisis as tension between Sunnis and Shi'ites is high and there is ill feeling among Christians who are divided between the rival camps.