watch this space folks..this is democracy at work… 
**
Beirut protest piles pressure on PM**
**Fred Attewill and agencies
**
Friday December 1, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
The Lebanese prime minister was under intense pressure today after tens of thousands of protesters descended on central Beirut in a mass rally orchestrated by Hizbullah in an attempt to force his resignation.
The US-backed premier, Fouad Siniora, whose position has grown increasingly precarious since the Israeli invasion this summer, stayed in his compound, ringed by police and troops.
Hizbullah said the fight was against “American tutelage” and vowed the protests would continue until the government fell.
The protest was to be followed by a sit-in near the government offices.
A defiant Mr Siniora insisted his government would not fall, warning in a nationally televised speech last night: “Lebanon’s independence is threatened and its democratic system is in danger.”
Some of the protesters shouted through loudspeakers, “Siniora out,” and, “We want a free government,” amid approving roars from the crowd and the deafening sound of Hizbullah revolutionary and nationalist songs.
One placard read: “We want a clean government.” This has become the opposition’s motto in what some newspapers have called the “great showdown”.
Hizbullah and its pro-Syrian allies have arranged to bus in supporters from all over Lebanon and handed out petrol coupons to people in far-flung regions of the country.
Heavily armed soldiers and police closed all roads leading to the sprawling prime minister’s headquarters that overlooks the demonstration site. They unfurled barbed wire and placed barricades to prevent any protests from spilling over into the stone-walled historic building.
The organisers have pledged the protest will be peaceful and Hizbullah’s security men separated protesters and police, but there are widespread fears protests may turn into street clashes between pro and anti-Syrian factions.
The government also believes Hizbullah supporters could try to storm Mr Siniora’s headquarters.
Tension are running high in the country between Sunni Muslims, who generally support the anti-Syrian government; Shias, who lead the pro-Syrian opposition, and Lebanon’s Christians, who are divided.
In a clear sign of the divide, the spiritual leader of Lebanon’s Sunnis, Grand Mufti Mohammed Rashid Kabbani, gave Friday prayers at the prime minister’s headquarters, in a show of support for his fellow Sunni Mr Siniora.
“Fear has gripped the Lebanese,” Mr Kabbani said, appealing for the protests to end.
“The constitution guarantees freedom of expression, but trying to overthrow the government in the street is a call for stirring up discord among people, and we will not accept this.”
Hizbullah had threatened the demonstrations unless it and its allies obtained a veto-wielding share of the cabinet. Mr Siniora rejected the demand.
The government was weakened last month by the resignation of six opposition ministers and the assassination of the anti-Syrian Christian cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel.
Hizbullah appears to have been emboldened after its resistance to the Israeli invasion saw its support among Shia rocket.