Lebanon Mourns Assassinated Mp Walid Eido

Mourners at the funeral of an anti-Syrian MP killed in a bomb blast today chanted slogans against the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and his ally, the Lebanese president, Emile Lahoud.

"We want revenge against Lahoud and Bashar," they shouted, as hundreds marched in the funeral procession in Beirut. Businesses, banks and schools were shut as Lebanon observed a national day of mourning.

Walid Eido, his 35-year-old son, two bodyguards and six passers-by were killed yesterday when a bomb ripped through his car as he drove near a popular waterfront promenade in the Lebanese capital.

Three ambulances carrying coffins of the victims were draped in Lebanese flags. Mourners carried white-and-blue flags of the Future Trend movement, to which Mr Eido belonged, and filed past pictures of Mr Eido and his lawyer son labeled with the slogan "Men of Justice".

The bombing came just three days after the government, together with the UN, started putting together an international tribunal ordered by the UN to try suspects in the assassination of the former prime minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut two years ago. A UN inquiry has implicated Syria, which denies involvement.

Mr Eido was a prominent supporter of the tribunal, a staunch follower of Mr Hariri and the seventh anti-Syrian figure killed in Lebanon in the past two years. He belonged to the majority anti-Syrian parliamentary bloc of Mr Hariri's son, Saad al-Hariri, which controls the government. Saad and his key allies led the mourners.

The pro-western prime minister, Fuad Siniora, has called for an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers and the international community to help in the investigation of Mr Eido's assassination

Allies of Mr Eido blamed his killing on Damascus and said it was in response to the establishment of the UN court.

"Terrorism of Syrian regime challenges the court: Walid Eido martyred," said the front-page headline of the daily al-Mustaqbal newspaper.

Mr Eido's death is likely to fuel tension between the government and the pro-Syrian opposition led by Hizbullah, which has been campaigning for the resignation of the Siniora government for months. Hizbullah has also condemned the killing.

Tension was already high in Lebanon before the attack. The army has been battling Islamist militants at a Palestinian refugee camp in the north for more than three weeks. More than 144 people have died in the battles in the worst internal fighting since the country's 1975-90 civil war.

A UN security council resolution setting up a tribunal to try suspects in the Hariri killing went into effect on June 10. Five less powerful bombs have exploded in and around Beirut in the past month, killing two people.