January 26, 2007	Friday	Muharram 06, 1428

BEIRUT, Jan 25: Four people were shot dead in clashes between pro- and anti-government activists in Lebanon on Thursday, overshadowing a $7.6 billion aid deal by international donors to shore up the US-backed government.

Two opposition students and two other people were shot dead and 100 were injured, many by gunfire, at Beirut's Arab University, security sources said.

The Lebanese army declared a night curfew in Beirut after the clashes and leaders of both sides appealed for calm.

A campaign led by Hezbollah and Shia and Christian allies against the government, which is struggling to recover from last year's war with Israel, has raised tensions between Sunnis and Shias in Lebanon, still recovering from a 1975-90 civil war.

Fighting started between students with sticks and stones on the university campus then spilled into nearby streets. It developed into exchanges of gunfire from assault rifles and pistols involving students and residents from both sides.

It was not immediately clear who opened fire but NBN and Al-Manar television, run by the Hezbollah movement, blamed the shootings on pro-government gunmen loyal to Sunni leader Saad al-Hariri.

Soldiers fired into the air to try to disperse the crowds and were later deployed in large numbers in an effort to control the clashes. Thick smoke rose from the area, where rioters had set cars and tyres ablaze.

Soldiers used military trucks to evacuate scores of civilians trapped on the streets by the violence.

Rival television stations blamed each other's camps for the fighting. Witnesses reported shots fired at students from rooftops in the mainly Sunni areas and attacks by a Sha mob on a Sunni-run school in another area of the capital.

Government loyalists hurled Molotov cocktails at an office of a pro-Syrian party in a Sunni neighbourhood of the capital setting the building on fire, witnesses said.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed

Hassan Nasrallah issued a religious edict, or fatwa, urging supporters to leave the streets and stay calm. Hariri urged supporters to show self-restraint and calm.

“What everyone should do now is halt the strife ... We must all be united or we have to look for our country in the graveyard of history,” Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Shia opposition leader, told local television stations by telephone.

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said from Paris where he was at an aid conference: “I call on everyone to return to the voice of reason.”

The clashes died down after the appeals but tension in several Beirut neighbourhoods was high after darkness.

An army spokesman said the curfew would take effect at 8:30 p.m. (1830 GMT) and would last until 6 a.m. on Friday.

DIM PROSPECTS: “It's a powder keg,” analyst Oussama Safa said.

“It doesn't seem to be a political decision to let it go there.

It's spontaneous street violence.”

The opposition launched nationwide protests on Tuesday which shut down much of Lebanon and sparked violence in which three people were killed and 176 wounded.

The opposition wants veto power in government and early parliamentary elections to topple Siniora's cabinet.

The prime minister and his main backer, parliamentary majority leader Hariri, have refused to give in to the demands.—Reuters