Leaders lash out at Syria

Beirut: Lebanon's leaders lashed out at Syria on Thursday as tens of thousands of people gathered for the funeral of anti-Syrian minister Pierre Gemayel.

Walid Jumblatt and Saad Hariri spoke from behind a bullet-proof glass screen while rallying against Syrian meddling in Lebanese affairs.

Gemayel joined "the previous martyrs... who had refused... the regime of tutelage, killings and assassinations," Jumblatt told the crowd at Martyrs' Square near the cathedral where Gemayel's funeral service was held.

"They will not nail down our determination to keep the arms in the hands of the state, and our demands for the truth, justice and the international court," Jumblatt said, alluding to Lebanon's insistence on an international tribunal on the murder of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri.

"You are here for a new revolution to show the entire world that the sons of Rafiq Hariri and the Pierre Gemayel are the majority in Lebanon," Hariri told the crowd.

"They said that you are a virtual majority, but we are the reality and they are virtual. National unity is stronger than their arms... and their terrorism."

Gemayel was the sixth anti-Syrian critic killed in the past two years. The anti-Syrian Maronite Christian politician was shot in his car in a Christian area of Beirut on Tuesday night.

Gemayel's coffin, wrapped in the flag of his Phalange Party, was brought from his hometown and carried through downtown Beirut to the St. George's Cathedral where an estimated 800,000 people gathered.

In a rare move, the head of the Maronite Church, Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, left his mountain headquarters to lead the funeral service. The country's top Shiite politician, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a top Hezbollah ally, also attended in an attempt to show national unity.