By Nadim Ladki
BEIRUT, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Fears grew on Monday that Lebanon's anti-government protests could turn into sectarian violence after an anti-government Shi'ite Muslim protester was shot dead in a Sunni district of Beirut.
Security sources said gunmen fired from assault rifles at a group of protesters returning from an opposition rally in central Beirut in the tense Sunni Qasqas neighbourhood, a stronghold for the anti-Syrian majority coalition.
One young man shot in the back died in hospital and 12 others were wounded.
Opposition sources said the shooting would not drive them to abandon plans for toppling the government.
The Shi'ite group Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, and its allies in the opposition had taken to the streets and were holding an indefinite sit-in to force the resignation of Western-backed Sunni Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
Many politicians and observers had warned that the crisis could spill over into sectarian strife in a country that had gone through two civil wars in the last century.
A van carrying protesters was stoned as it drove through Qasqas earlier in the day. The army broke up the crowd, but later on the shooting incident took place.
The army was deployed in the area and was investigating the shooting.
Despite the tension, thousands of protesters spent a third night in a newly built tent city in central Beirut outside the main government complex where Siniora was spending his days and nights.
SECTARIAN DIVIDE
The opposition, which includes some Christians, has been demanding effective veto power in the government, whose majority comprises anti-Syrian politicians from Christian, Sunni and Druze parties.
But these politicians say the opposition only wants to weaken the government and derail a U.N. tribunal that would try suspects in the 2005 murder of ex-premier Rafik al-Hariri.
A preliminary U.N. inquiry has implicated Syrian and Lebanese security officials in the killing, which led to Syrian forces being forced to withdraw from Lebanon last year.
"Our one and only demand is a government of national unity," senior pro-Syrian Christian opposition figure Suleiman Franjieh told tens of thousands of supporters massed at Beirut's Riad al-Solh square.
"We will stay in this square ... we will not leave until this illegal and unconstitutional government goes."
Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa met Lebanese leaders in Beirut, expressing concern and saying Arab countries could not afford to be bystanders in a crisis that developed after Hezbollah's summer war with Israel.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Jerusalem that he planned to deliver a strong message when he meets President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Monday.
"Lebanon must have a chance to develop based on its own domestic forces and that can only happen when outside interference is ruled out," he said.
Six opposition ministers resigned from the cabinet last month after unity talks collapsed. But the depleted government approved plans for the Hariri tribunal, sparking the latest protests.
Lebanon had been rocked in the past 22 months by the assassination of Hariri and five other anti-Syrian figures, the last of whom was cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel on November 21.
((Editing by Myra MacDonald; Reuters Messaging: nadim.ladki.reuters.com@reuters.net; nadim.ladki@reuters.com))
