Burning tyres block roads in Lebanon general strike

BEIRUT, Jan 23 (Reuters) Thousands of Lebanese protesters blocked main roads in Beirut and around the country with rubble and burning tyres today at the start of a general strike called by the opposition to try to topple the government.

The strike is the latest move by the opposition, which includes Hezbollah, to escalate its campaign to dislodge the pro-Western government, install a new unity administration and hold early elections.

Protesters in Beirut, north, south and east Lebanon took to the streets at around 600hrs and began blocking off roads with rubble and burning tyres. Plumes of smoke rose above Beirut forming a black cloud hanging over the city.

Most main roads inside Beirut and into the city were blocked, as were was the highways linking the capital to north and south Lebanon as well as to the Syrian capital Damascus.

The road to Beirut's international airport, Lebanon's only such civilian facility, was also blocked. Most shops, schools and businesses were closed in Beirut but it was difficult to tell whether they were shut because people supported the strike or because they could not reach they could not get to work.

Lebanese security forces struggled to open roads due to the sheer numbers of protesters and soldiers made little effort to intervene in Hizbollah's south Beirut stronghold.

Opposition sources say protests would last for days. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah yesterday called on supporters to be ready for more steps to press opposition demands. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's Western-backed government has shrugged off the demands and is instead preparing for an international aid conference in Paris on Thursday that it hopes will yield billions of dollars for Lebanon's debt-laden economy.

OFF TO PARIS Political sources said Siniora had left Lebanon to Paris a few hours before the strike began.

''Siniora out, down with the government,'' Hezbollah followers chanted as they lit tyres in downtown Beirut, close to the prime minister's office.

The opposition's campaign, which started on December 1 with an open-ended protest in central Beirut, has been largely peaceful, though one anti-government protester was shot dead in December.

Nasrallah said some government politicians wanted violence in Lebanon, which is still rebuilding from its 1975-1990 civil war. ''We will move and if you want to kill us in the street, kill us,'' he said. ''We will not draw our weapons against you.'' The standoff has raised tensions between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims in Lebanon -- a country with a delicate sectarian power balance.

The government is backed by Sunni leader Saad al-Hariri and the opposition includes Shi'ite groups Hezbollah and Amal. Bad feeling is also high between Christians whose leaders are split between the two camps.

Leaders allied to the government had called on Lebanese to go to work.

Reuters DKA GC1130