Army lifts Beirut curfew after sectarian clashes

BEIRUT, Jan 26 (Reuters) Lebanon's army lifted a curfew on Beirut today, but schools and universities were closed a day after Sunni-Shi'ite clashes raised fears of the kind of wider sectarian strife that once plunged the country into civil war.

Traffic began to return to the streets of mainly Sunni districts of Beirut after the army lifted the curfew at 0930 hrs, but some feared there would be more clashes.

It was the first night curfew on Beirut since the 1975-90 civil war.

''It's very bad. It's going to be like Iraq here,'' muttered a vegetable seller in a religiously mixed area of the capital.

''God damn whoever awakened it!'' read the headline in As-Safir newspaper.

Four people were shot dead in clashes between pro- and anti-government activists on Thursday and about 200 were hurt in the violence that flared after a scuffle between students at a Beirut university.

Some pedestrians were beaten up on the basis of their sectarian identity, witnesses said.

The four dead included two Shi'ite Hezbollah students and one supporter of the Sunni-led government.

The US ambassador to Beirut, whose country backs Prime Minister Fouad Siniora against Hezbollah and its Shi'ite and Christian allies, said the situation had become ''quite dangerous'' and Syria was involved once again.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah issued a religious edict, or fatwa, calling his supporters off the streets. Sunni leader Saad al-Hariri urged his loyalists to show restraint.

''I call on everyone to return to the voice of reason,'' said Siniora, speaking from Paris. He was at the aid conference seeking help to shore up Lebanon's debt-laden finances and repair damage from last year's war between Israel and Hezbollah.

US ambassador Jeffrey Feltman pointed the finger at Syria, which is Hezbollah's main ally, along with Iran.

''History has shown that outside powers like Syria have done it before. And I can't give you solid evidence, but one can certainly make a pretty strong case that it's Syria's hands at work again,'' he said on US-funded Al-Hurra television.

''Nobody should be surprised when things start to spin out of control, when there has been an intentional two-three month effort to provoke sectarian tension,'' Feltman added.

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 general strike intensified a street campaign that began on December. 1 when opposition supporters began camping out near Siniora's offices in downtown Beirut to back demands for veto power in government and early parliamentary elections.

Siniora and his main backer, parliamentary majority leader Hariri, have refused to give in to the demands.

REUTERS PDM PM1412