By Crispian Balmer BEIRUT, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Unrelenting violence in Iraq has raised sectarian tensions across the Middle East and is polarising communities in Lebanon, a volatile country peppered with political and religious divisions. The Lebanese opposition, spearheaded by the Shi'ite Islamist group Hezbollah, has besieged government headquarters in the heart of Beirut since Dec. 1 as part of a campaign to unseat Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who is a Sunni Muslim. Some analysts say the power struggle, complicated by conflicting foreign loyalties, could trigger Lebanon's third civil war since it won independence in 1943. But whereas the last civil war started out in 1975 primarily as a fight between Christian and Muslim militia, the main faultline now lies between the Sunnis and Shi'ites, with the chaos in Iraq exacerbating tensions on the streets of Beirut. "Lebanon is obviously not in a similar position to Iraq, but people are watching the pictures from Baghdad and it is creating tension and fear," said Paul Salem, head of the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut. "It makes people more wary about dealing with each other." Iraq has been shredded by sectarian violence since the bombing of a revered Shi'ite shrine in February touched off a wave of tit-for-tat reprisals that have cost thousands of lives. Echoes of the Iraqi troubles have begun to flicker on the radar screen of tiny Lebanon. The opposition protests have provoked several sectarian clashes in Beirut this month, with one Shi'ite demonstrator shot dead in a largely Sunni neighbourhood. "The blood of the Shi'ites is boiling," some youths chanted at the funeral of the slain man. PLAYING WITH FIRE Aware that his anti-government drive risks fuelling inter-faith violence, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah urged restraint in a video address to protesters on Thursday. "Today there isn't talk about Muslims and Christians in Lebanon, all the talk is about Sunnis and Shi'ites in Lebanon," he said. "Sectarian incitement is playing with fire ... and we won't be dragged into a civil war." But analysts say that the sort of incitement Nasrallah is talking about is being broadcast on Hezbollah's own al-Manar television station as well as the pro-government Future Television, owned by the family of late prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, whose assassination in 2005 touched off a political crisis in Lebanon between pro-Syrian forces led by Hezbollah and the present government coalition. "When I watch the channels controlled by the Sunnis and Shi'ites I think the war has already begun. The mobilisation for people's minds has already begun," said Antoine Basbous, head of the Paris-based Observatory of Arab Countries. The opposition bloc is dominated by Shi'ites while the pro-government bloc is led by Sunnis. Both include allies from the badly-split Christian community and other significant sects like the Druze, allied with the prime minister. There are no official figures for the religious make up of Lebanon, but a private survey released last month said 35 percent of Lebanon's 4.9 million people were Christian, with the Sunni's and Shi'ites level pegging on 29 percent. The Shi'ites contest the data and believe they are much more numerous. However, Lebanon's byzantine power sharing scheme gives equal power to Christians and Muslims and blocks Shi'ites from the two top jobs -- the presidency and prime minister's office. WAR The Shi'ites have traditionally been Lebanon's poorest group and have flocked to the Iranian-funded Hezbollah, which has set up a network of hospitals, schools and other charities. Lebanese Shi'ites feel particularly aggrieved because their community bore the brunt of the recent, 34-day war against Israel, with Israeli jets targeting Hezbollah strongholds after their guerrilla force captured two Israeli soldiers. Nasrallah has accused the Beirut government of conniving with Washington to destroy his group, a charge Siniora denies but one which is widely believed by many Shi'ites. "The government did nothing for us during the war. Worse, it sided with Israel," said Ali Faqeeh, from the southern town of Nabatieh, who has joined the round-the-clock Beirut protests. "We had to get our help from Iran and Syria," he added. As before, Lebanon risks becoming a pawn in a bigger game. On the one side Iran wants to be a major regional power and its Arab foes accuse it of trying to establish a "Shi'ite crescent" stretching from the Caspian Sea through Iraq onto the Mediterranean Sea. On the other sides Sunni states which support Siniora, like Saudi Arabia, are battling to maintain the status quo and are determined to prevent Hezbollah from gaining the upper hand. "Iraq has dramatically heightened the levels of Shi'ite and Sunni identities across the region and great forces are now at play," said Carnegie's Salem. "It is much harder to negotiate over sectarian issues rather than political ones."
