Anti-Syrian Christian leader buried

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Mourners carried the flag-draped coffin of an assassinated anti-Syrian lawmaker through the streets Friday, and a leader of his party said the murder should provide "a new incentive" for Lebanon to press ahead with a presidential election that begins next week.

Antoine Ghanem, who died in a car-bombing Wednesday along with his bodyguard, driver and three other people, was the eighth anti-Syrian figure killed since 2005.

A brass band played the anthem of Ghanem's Phalange Party as hundreds of mourners marched behind his coffin, wrapped in the Lebanese and Phalange Party flags. Women ululated in grief as it was borne through the streets. Some in the crowds chanted slogans venting their anger at Syria and its Lebanese allies, namely the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group.

Syria has denied any involvement in the death of Ghanem, 64, or the previous seven assassinations, including the 2005 bombing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. After Hariri's death, Syria withdrew its forces from Lebanon under domestic and international pressure.

Schools and universities across the country as well as some businesses in Christian areas of Beirut and in Mount Lebanon, a region north and east of the capital, were closed for a second day as the government called for national mourning.

The slaying has put international attention back on Lebanon, with the United States condemning the attack and the U.N. Security Council demanding an immediate end to targeted killings of Lebanese leaders.

There had been hopes the presidential vote could break a 10-month-old political deadlock between Lebanon's pro-Western government and pro-Syrian opposition factions led by the militant Hezbollah group. But that hope diminished with Ghanem's death.

It threatened to derail efforts to bring the country's rival parties together to agree on a president before a two-month election period begins Tuesday in the deeply divided parliament. Lebanese leaders from all factions have pledged to press ahead with the election.

A hearse carried Ghanem's body from a hospital a few blocks from where he was killed to the offices of the Phalange Party, the Christian political group to which he belonged. There, it was met by supporters and relatives who marched to a Maronite Catholic church for the funeral service under heavy security.

Mourners carried pictures or waved Phalange Party flags. Some unleashed fireworks or threw rose petals. Street banners said, "We Won't Kneel."

As the coffins arrived at the church, applause broke out and bells tolled. Inside, majority leaders joined Cabinet ministers and Ghanem's family for the service.

Former President Amin Gemayel, whose son, Pierre, was killed by gunmen in November 2006, warned that failure to elect a president could lead to a power vacuum and the eventual partitioning of Lebanon.

Gemayel, also leader of the Phalange Party, urged Christian lawmakers, who make up half of the parliament, to attend next week's session to choose a president.

"Your martyrdom, Antoine, is a new incentive to hold the presidential elections no matter what happens," Gemayel said in his eulogy.

Gemayel said Ghanem's death was "a message to the Arab League, the United Nations and the Security Council to protect the presidential elections in order to salvage the Lebanese Republic."

The Phalange Party was the main political group with a military arm during Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war.

President Emile Lahoud, an ally of Syria, is due to step down Nov. 24, and government supporters see the vote as a chance to put one of their own in the post. But Hezbollah and its allies vow to block any candidate they do not accept.

Many Lebanese fear the division over the presidency could lead to the creation of two rival governments.

The U.N. Security Council on Thursday called for a "free and fair presidential election" without foreign interference and stressed that "any attempt to destabilize Lebanon, including through political assassination or other terrorist acts, should not impede or subvert the constitutional process in Lebanon."