by Jacqueline Jraissaty
BEIRUT - Lebanese President Emile Lahoud warned on Saturday of a catastrophe if protests continue in Lebanon, where pro-Syrian forces have announced a series of marches to counter mass demonstrations by the opposition.
"If they want to continue demonstrating, a little firecracker will lead to catastrophe," Lahoud said as he received a union delegation.
"We are not in Georgia and nor are we in Ukraine. We have lived through 17 years of war and this could happen again ... But we will not let it come to pass," said Lahoud in the address, extracts of which were aired on state television.
The anti-Syrian opposition has called for a new demonstration in central Beirut on Monday to mark one month since former prime minister Rafiq Hariri was killed in the massive bomb blast that sparked Lebanon's political crisis.
A succession of opposition protests was matched last Tuesday by a pro-Syrian protest march of hundreds of thousands of people through the centre of the capital.
The pro-Syrian camp has announced further demonstrations throughout the country, including in the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiye on Sunday.
"If the protests continue here and there, that will be enough for whoever committed the assassination to throw a grenade. What will become of our children?" warned Lahoud.
Lahoud also rounded on the opposition for refusing to take part in the government of national unity sought by prime minister designate Omar Karameh, saying it had "judged dialogue useless because it found support from abroad, particularly from France and the United States."
He promised to find the truth about the murder of Hariri, saying this was a priority for the state.
"The person who carried this out wanted to start an insurrection. If he is not found, he will start again. It is in the interest of the state to find him as quickly as possible since the crime was aimed at all of Lebanon."
Responding to opposition calls to sack top security service officials and the prosecutor general, Lahoud said anyone found guilty of negligence would be punished but within the framework of institutions.
Syria has denied suggestions here and elsewhere that it had a hand in the killing of Hariri, which led to heavy international pressure on Damascus to withdraw its troops from Lebanon and end its domination of the country.
The president also announced that he had held talks on Friday evening with the head of the Maronite church and key oppositon figure, Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, who is due to meet US President George W. Bush in Washington on Wednesday.
His comments came after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad committed himself during a meeting Saturday with a special UN envoy to calling home all Syrian military and intelligence units from Lebanon in compliance with a Security Council resolution.
The envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen, said he would next week present UN Secretary General Kofi Annan with "further details of the timetable" for a complete Syrian pullout when he returns to New York.
But he did not disclose a precise timeframe for Syria's departure from Lebanon, where it has stationed troops since 1976.
03/12/2005 20:58 GMT