Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on Thursday appealed to six ministers from Hezbollah and other pro-Syrian factions to return to the cabinet.

"I call on my brotherly colleagues, all the ministers who presented their resignations, to come back to the rows of government ... so that we can come back and open all the pages and issues that are of importance to our people and nation," he said after a cabinet meeting.

The ministers quit the cabinet this month after all-party talks on a new government collapsed. They say the depleted cabinet is a puppet of Washington which lacks legitimacy.

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The Lebanese government will meet on Saturday to approve plans for a special international court to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, official sources said on Thursday.

The court issue is a major source of tension between the Western-backed government and the pro-Syrian opposition. Tensions between the two groups have been exacerbated by Tuesday's assassination of cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel.

Early reports from a UN inquiry into Hariri's death implicated Syrian security officials and their Lebanese counterparts.

Syria, which critics have also accused of involvement in Gemayel's killing, denies any role in their deaths.

Lebanon's government says its Syrian-backed opponents, led by the powerful Shiite Muslim party Hezbollah, want to weaken it and to scupper the international tribunal.

The government, keen to ensure the international tribunal is established, would fall if it lost two more ministers.

Amin Gemayel urges "second Lebanon intifada"
Former Lebanese president Amin Gemayel, the father of slain Lebanese minister Pierre Gemayel, declared the "second Lebanese intifada for independence," during a rally in honor of his son Thursday in Beirut, Israel Radio reported.

"The Lebanese people will not rest until there is a new president in the Baabda palace, in place of Emile Lahoud," said Gemayel.

Later on Thursday, hundreds of Shiite Muslim protesters cut off Beirut's airport main road, witnesses told Reuters.

The demonstrators took to the road near Beirut's southern suburbs to protest what they said were insults against Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at Gemayel's funeral earlier in the day.

"Nasrallah don't worry, your Shiites can drink blood," they chanted as they marched on the road.

Hezbollah cars with loudspeakers urged the protesters to disperse and go home and its members blocked off nearby streets to stop the protests from spreading.

At least 200,000 Lebanese poured into central Beirut to pay tribute to murdered Christian leader Pierre Gemayel on Thursday, turning his funeral into a show of strength against Syria and its Hezbollah allies.

The funeral in the St. George Maronite Cathedral in the capital was attended by Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, French Foreign Minister Phillipe Douste-Blazy and Arab League chief Amr Moussa. Television footage showed mourners weeping openly during the service.

Gemayel's coffin, wrapped in the flag of his Phalange Party - white with a green cedar emblem - was brought from his hometown and carried through applauding throngs in downtown Beirut to the cathedral, where the packed congegration sang hymns.

In a rare move, the head of the Maronite Church, Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, left his mountain headquarters to lead the funeral service, in which family and dignitaries were participating. The country's most senior Shi'ite politician, Parliament Speaker Nabih Beri, a top Hezbollah ally, also attended in an attempt to show national unity.

Sunni Muslim, Druze and Christian leaders have accused Syria of killing Gemayel, scion of one of Lebanon's most prominent Maronite families. Damascus has condemned the assassination.

"We will not rest until all the criminals are brought to justice," Gemayel's 64-year-old father, the former president Amin Gemayel, told mourners.

Crowds waving the flags of Lebanon and of Gemayel's Phalange Party packed Martyrs' Square in Beirut before the 1 P.M. funeral.

Thousands of soldiers and police were deployed in the capital which came to a standstill. Shops, schools, banks and government offices were closed to let people join the mourning.

Angry crowds carried slogans calling on Syrian-backed Lebanese President Emile Lahoud to resign. "Bashar agent get out of Baabda [palace]," one banner read, referring to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Gemayel, 34, was shot dead Tuesday, the sixth killing of an anti-Syrian figure in less than two years in Lebanon, a cockpit for regional conflicts and rivalries for decades.

The country was already in the midst of a political crisis over efforts by Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah to clip the wings of the ruling anti-Syrian majority coalition, which the Shi'ite Muslim group regards as Washington's puppet.

Anti-Syrian leaders say Damascus had Gemayel killed to try to derail plans for an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Early reports of a UN inquiry into the Hariri killing implicated Syrian security officials and their Lebanese counterparts. Syria denies involvement.

The UN Security Council approved Wednesday a Lebanese government request to add the Gemayel killing to the string of previous attacks the UN inquiry is investigating.

"Only the international tribunal protects us" and "Lebanon means life" read banners held by mourners in Beirut.

Hariri's son Saad, Jumblatt and Christian Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea urged people to attend ceremonies for the son of former president Gemayel and the nephew of Bashir Gemayel, killed in 1982 after he was elected president.

Gemayel's cortege was driving from his mountain home town of Bekfaya to downtown Beirut, where mass protests after Hariri's assassination helped end Syria's 29-year military presence in Lebanon.

Jumblatt said Wednesday Gemayel's killing marked the resumption of political killings. "It seems the Syrian regime will continue with the assassinations," he said.

Anti-Syrian leaders say the assassination was aimed at weakening a government opposed to Damascus's influence in Lebanon and which took power after Syrian troops withdrew.

The government, keen to ensure the international tribunal is established, would fall if it lost two more ministers.

The cabinet has been weakened by the resignation of six ministers from the Syrian-backed opposition led by Hezbollah.

They quit after the collapse of all-party talks on forming a government.

Hezbollah had pledged street protests aimed at toppling the government but Gemayel's killing has disrupted those plans.

"It can't stage a demonstration now. It would be widely read as a pro-Syrian demonstration as opposed to an anti-government demonstration," Hezbollah expert Amal Saad Ghorayeb said.

U.S. President George W. Bush called Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora on Wednesday and pledged to support "Lebanese independence from the encroachments of Iran and Syria," a White House spokesman said.