BEIRUT, 7 December 2006 — Lebanon’s Western-backed Prime Minister Fouad Siniora urged the Hezbollah-led opposition yesterday to end street protests and return to the negotiating table, vowing that he would not be forced from power.

“The street will not resolve any problem ... there is no other way than to sit down and talk,” Siniora told cheering supporters at his offices in central Beirut.

Thousands of opposition followers have been camping out near government headquarters since Friday, paralyzing the commercial and banking heart of Beirut, to force Siniora’s resignation.

The protests have sparked several sectarian clashes between Shiite Muslims who back Hezbollah and Siniora’s supporters, who are Sunnis, raising fears of large-scale violence in a country that has suffered two civil wars in the last 50 years.

“This thing (protests) doesn’t yield results. It digs trenches and does not build a country,” Siniora said. “We open our heart and extend our hand and call on everyone to sit around the table to resolve the problems.” The opposition is demanding the formation of a national unity government and accuses Siniora of failing to stand by pro-Syrian Hezbollah during the war with Israel in the summer.

Opposition Vows No End to Protests

Thousands of Lebanese demonstrators, many camped out in a tent city in Beirut, staged a sixth day of protests yesterday as key opposition figures vowed no end to their campaign to topple the government.

Influential pro-Syrian parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of the Shiite movement Hezbollah, told As-Safir newspaper that the street protests will continue, but urged calm.

And Christian leader Michel Aoun warned that the Lebanese opposition, led by the pro-Syrian Hezbollah, will escalate its street protests if the Western-backed government fails to accept demands for a unity Cabinet.

“If the prime minister and his camp continue to monopolize power, there will be an escalation of popular pressure,” Aoun, 71, said in an interview. “We will paralyze the government, we will force it to go into a deep coma.”

Siniora allies accuse their opponents of using the protests to try to derail an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which many Lebanese blame on Syria — a charge Damascus denies.

Compromises floated by Lebanese politicians and Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa have failed to break the deadlock. Hezbollah and its allies, among them a populist Christian party, want just over one third of all Cabinet seats, handing them effective power of veto.

Political sources said Siniora appeared to have accepted a proposal to increase the number of Cabinet posts to 30 from 24. Nine or 10 of these posts would go to the opposition, 19 to the anti-Syrian coalition and one or two to neutral ministers.

The opposition indicated this fell short of their demands.

The ruling majority says it will back a government of national unity, but only as part of a broader deal that would ensure Parliament’s approval of plans for the Hariri tribunal and early presidential elections.

President Emile Lahoud is a pro-Syrian whose term was extended in 2004 and is due to end in November 2007.

Western and Arab leaders have publicly backed Siniora, with Sunni leaders in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan apparently worried by the growing influence of Shiite Iran, which is funding Hezbollah.

Government and opposition supporters have accused each other of fueling sectarian divisions, and a Shiite protester was shot dead on Sunday, a killing Hezbollah loyalists say was the work of “militias” loyal to Saad Hariri, Rafik’s son and head of the anti-Syrian majority.

He has denied the accusation and warned Hezbollah not to turn to its own, well-armed militia in the stand-off.

“If Hezbollah is going to turn its militias against the Lebanese, not only will it lose our support and the support of the Lebanese, but it will ignite internal and sectarian strife,” Saad Hariri told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.