Lebanon president urged to resign

Mourning opposition leaders have blamed Syria for the killing

Lebanon's opposition has called for pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud to resign over the killing of a leading journalist in Beirut on Thursday.

Samir Qasir, an opposition figure and critic of Syrian influence in Beirut, was killed by a bomb placed in his car.

An opposition statement said Mr Lahoud must resign over Qasir's death, which comes amid closely-contested elections.

Mr Lahoud has condemned the attack and Syria has rejected opposition charges that it engineered Qasir's killing.

Qasir's death was the most high-profile assassination in Lebanon since former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri died in a bomb blast on 14 February.

That killing plunged the country into its worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 war, prompting massive demonstrations and international pressure that led Syria to end its 29-year military presence in Lebanon.

Damascus denial

A statement issued by the opposition said the president must resign "as the effective head of the security and intelligence regime".

The blast hit mid-morning as Qasir was about to leave home

It also called for a strike on Friday in protest at Qasir's killing.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice condemned the attack as a "heinous" attempt to intimidate the Lebanese amid a crucial series of legislative elections, due to end on 19 June.

She urged Lebanon's government to deliver on its pledge to investigate Qasir's death.

Elias Atallah, a leader of the Democratic Left party - to which Qasir had close ties - blamed Lebanon's "president and the joint Lebanese-Syrian intelligence agencies" for killing "a symbol of the free press".

A government source in Damascus said the accusations reflected "pre-determined anti-Syrian stances".

Qasir is said by police to have died instantly in the blast outside his home in Beirut's Ashrafiyeh district, a largely Christian residential area.

He was a front-page columnist for the al-Nahar newspaper, where he wrote strongly critical articles against the pro-Syrian Lebanese regime.

Three people have been killed in a series of explosions in Christian areas of the capital and its suburbs since the Syrian withdrawal in April.