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Elections, writer's death have Lebanon on edge

BINT JBEIL, Lebanon - As tension grew at the burial of a slain journalist on Saturday, the anti-Syrian opposition called for Lebanon's president to step down as the country prepares for the second of four stages of parliamentary elections.

The second of the four-round parliamentary elections will take place in the south of Lebanon today, and Hezbollah expects to win, which will give the militant group greater political influence to confront international pressure to disarm now that its Syrian backers have withdrawn from the country.

But the death of Samir Kassir, the anti-Syrian journalist killed Thursday by a bomb in his car, reignited hostility toward Damascus and prompted calls for President Emile Lahoud, Syria's greatest supporter here, to step down.

Hundreds of mourners marched in Beirut at Kassir's funeral Saturday amid calls for an international investigation into his death.

Kassir, a 45-year-old columnist for An-Nahar newspaper, was laid to rest a few hundred yards from where he died in the Christian suburb of Ashrafieh.

Lebanese opposition members, who blame Syria and its local allies for Kassir's killing, asked government officials to stay away from the funeral.

Syria pulled its troops out of Lebanon in April after three decades, and Lebanon is in the midst of parliamentary elections the anti-Syrian opposition hopes will end Damascus' control of the legislature.

While the race for parliamentary seats in most Lebanese areas is largely between the pro- and anti-Syrian camps, today's election in south Lebanon is geared toward rejecting international pressure to disarm Hezbollah in line with a U.N. Security Council resolution.

Voters in southern Lebanon are united in their support for Hezbollah - crediting it for forcing Israeli troops to withdraw from the region - and in their rejection of international attempts to disarm the group. Hezbollah, backed by both Syria and Iran, led a guerrilla war against Israel's 18-year occupation of a border zone in south Lebanon that ended in 2000.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, whose Amal movement has forged an alliance with Hezbollah, urged the groups' supporters to turn out "to vote against Resolution 1559."

Last year's U.N. Resolution 1559 forced Syrian troops to leave Lebanon and also demands that militias - a clear reference to Hezbollah - give up their weapons.

Hezbollah, which is fielding 14 candidates across Lebanon, hopes to build on the nine seats it already holds in the 128-member legislature.

[Last modified June 5, 2005, 02:15:25]