by Nayla Razzouk
BEIRUT- Chanting "America out," hundreds of thousands of people swarmed into the Lebanese capital for a mass rally led by the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah to counter demands for an end to Syria's domination.
"Repeat after me, death to Israel," Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah told the massive crowd which echoed his call across Riad Solh square at the heart of the Beirut downtown area.
The crowd estimated by AFP correspondents to number more than 400,000 people, jammed nearby overpasses and all main roads leading into the city center.
They booed the United States and France as Nasrallah, whose group's militia fought Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon during the 1990s, called for an end to foreign interference in Lebanon.
The two countries sponsored UN Security Council Resolution 1559 which demands a full and immediate pullout of foreign troops from Lebanon and the disarming of militias, in clear references to Syria and Hezbollah.
"We are here to reject Resolution 1559, to defend the resistance, its mission and its arms," said Nasrallah, drawing loud cheers.
"We are united here above all to thank Syria, the Syrian people and the Syrian army which has stayed by our side for many long years and is still with us," he said.
Under the protection of black-clad Hezbollah militants, the crowd waved portraits of Nasrallah, late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad, his son and successor Bashar al-Assad and pro-Damascus Lebanese President Emile Lahoud.
"Lebanon isn't your playground," was the slogan on one poster of US President George W. Bush, who has been leading international calls for Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon.
"Thank you Syria, no to foreign interference," read one banner in the square decorated with the Lebanese red-and-white national flags that have become a symbol of rival rallies by the anti-Syrian opposition.
"Beirut is free, America out," shouted the demonstrators. "We want to speak the truth, America we don't want you."
Some Hezbollah members were accompanied by bomb-sniffing dogs, while Lebanese army jeeps and armoured vehicles were lined up to separate the pro-Syrian demonstrators from nearby Martyrs' Square, which has been filled daily with opposition supporters chanting "Syria out."
The demonstrators, bussed in from across Lebanon, held a minute of silence in memory of assassinated former prime minister Rafic Hariri, before the Lebanese national anthem was sung.
The pro-Syrian groups have rejected Resolution 1559 calling for the pullout of troops saying that Lebanon was still in a "state of war" with neighbouring Israel.
"We are here because Hezbollah is our guarantee against Israel and we do not want Resolution 1559 which deprives us of Syria's precious backing and removes the weapons from the hands of the resistance," said Ali Haidar, 28.
One man brandished a cross and a copy of the Koran, chanting "No to partition, no to the permanent presence (of Palestinian refugees), our unity is stronger than 1559."
"This is the first time that we hold such a demonstration in Beirut, we want to show the world that we exist, that not everyone in Lebanon agrees with calls to get Syria out," said Hussein Zein, 37.
In a clear sign of the dominance in the protest of Shiite Muslims, who form the majority in Lebanon, the crowd kept calling out "Berri, Nasrallah and the suburbs".
They were referring to the head of the Shiite secular movement Amal, parliament speaker Nabih Berri, Nasrallah and the mostly Shiite southern suburbs of Beirut.
03/08/2005 18:05 GMT