Syria faces more Lebanon pressure

Lebanon has suffered a series of bomb attacks

Syria is coming under increased international pressure over its role in Lebanon, following the murder in Beirut of leading anti-Syrian MP Gibran Tueni.

Lebanon's cabinet asked the UN Security Council to investigate the killing and other recent political murders.

In protest, some pro-Syrian ministers said they were suspending their participation in Lebanon's government.

Meanwhile a UN report confirmed Syrian officials were key suspects in the murder of ex-Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri.

The report is due to be discussed by the UN Security Council on Tuesday, amid threats of unspecified action against Syria.

The findings back earlier conclusions by a UN investigator that Syrian collusion in the murder was highly probable.

Syria denies any involvement in the plot to kill Mr Hariri and rejects criticism that it is not fully co-operating with the probe.

Sensitive timing

Since Mr Hariri's death, at least 13 people have been killed and many more injured in 14 blasts in Christian and anti-Syrian areas.

The latest attack killed Gibran Tueni only a day after he returned from Paris, where he had been staying amid fears for his life.

Mr Tueni was managing editor of the leading liberal An-Nahar newspaper, and an outspoken critic of Syria's occupation of Lebanon.

Syria has no history at all of assassination Buthaina Shaban Syrian minister

BBC Middle East analyst Roger Hardy says the attack raises the political temperature in Lebanon at a highly sensitive time.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said he would ask the UN Security Council to look the death of Gibran Tueni "and the others that have been committed... in order to take the necessary measures".

"I will also ask for the formation of a court with an international character in the assassination of martyr Rafik Hariri because it has gone beyond personal assassinations," he said.

Gibran Tueni was a vocal critic of Syrian influence

The Lebanese government backed such a move at an urgent meeting later on Monday.

But five pro-Syrian Lebanese Shia Muslim ministers immediately said they were suspending participation in the cabinet after the vote.

"We object to the principle of internationalising all Lebanese files... and abandoning (Lebanon's) sovereignty," Energy Minister Mohammed Fneish told reporters.

Damascus said the latest attack was timed to damage its reputation ahead of the UN meeting.

"Syria has no history at all of assassination," said Syrian minister Buthaina Shaban. "Syria does not do such acts and anyone who is doing these acts is targeting both Syria and Lebanon."

Statement

A previously unknown group calling itself Strugglers for the Unity and Freedom of the Levant issued a statement saying it had carried out the attack on Mr Tueni. There was no independent confirmation of the group's claim.

Syria should pursue its own investigation in an earnest and professional manner and respond to the commission in a timely way, fully and unconditionally UN report Report backs Syria suspicions

Veteran Lebanese politician Walid Jumblatt accused Syria of targeting Mr Tueni because "he was the voice of freedom".

"He was upsetting directly the Syrian regime. He was frank about it," the Druze leader told the BBC.

"He was saying to the Syrian people, to the Arab world, these kinds of regimes, terrorist regimes, cannot still exist, they should disappear."

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the killing was a savage attack clearly intended to intimidate those in Lebanon who would courageously and openly speak their minds.