1. Wide of Druse leader Walid Jumblatt's news conference

2. SOUNDBITE (English): Walid Jumblatt, Senior Druse politician in the anti-Syrian coalition:

"I just accuse bluntly the Syrian regime. Because it does not want Lebanon, the people of Lebanon, to be free, independent, and to be safe and to be prosperous from the start. (Listens to reporter's question) By killing Pierre Gemayel they have killed one member of the Government, we still have the majority actually and we can approve the draft, the convention between the Lebanese government and the United Nations. They might kill another minister, its very possible, very plausible. And they might of course kill other members of parliament, because Pierre Gemayel was a member of parliament and a minister. So to reduce the majority in the parliament. They can do anything, because his only fear, Bashar (Syrian President Bashar Assad), is not to be indicted somewhere by the tribunal. And here I have to remind people that he said it, he acknowledged the fact indirectly that if a Syrian official is involved into the killing of Hariri (former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri), this Syrian is to be judged and tried. He said it in one of his famous so-called speeches. But even that he cannot afford it. Because he knows that if maybe a single corporal a single individual in Syria is involved into the crime, you know the system, their totalitarian system, is wholly involved.

3. Cutaway wide

4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic): Walid Jumblatt, Senior Druse politician in the anti-Syrian coalition:

"It seems that the Syrian regime has resumed assassinations or they are carrying on with their assassinations and they will continue to kill. I'm expecting more assassinations. But whatever they do, we are here, we are here, and we are going to win."

5. Jumblatt rising and leaving room at end of conference

6. Reporters leaving

A prominent Lebanese politician on Wednesday accused Syria of assassinating Lebanon's Industry Minister, Pierre Gemayel, in a Beirut suburb a day earlier.

Walid Jumblatt, a prominent Druse politician in the anti-Syrian coalition, blamed Damascus for the death.

"I just accuse bluntly the Syrian regime. Because it does not want Lebanon, the people of Lebanon, to be free, independent, and to be safe," Jumblatt said.

Gemayel, minister of industry and scion of a prominent political family, was killed on Tuesday when two cars blocked his vehicle at an intersection in

the suburbs of Beirut.

He was shot numerous times through a side window of his car.

His killing - the fifth murder of an anti-Syrian figure in Lebanon in two years - immediately drew condemnations from all quarters.

The United States condemned the slaying as an act of terrorism.

Syria too condemned the assassination and denied any role in it.

President George W. Bush accused Syria and Iran of seeking to undermine the government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, though he stopped short of blaming them for the 34-year-old's slaying.

In contrast however, Jumblatt openly accused Syria of being involved and he warned that the lives of more Lebanese political leaders could be in danger from the Syrian regime.

"They might kill another minister, its very possible, very plausible. And they might of course kill other members of parliament, because Pierre Gemayel was a member of parliament and a minister. So to reduce the majority in the parliament. They can do anything," said Jumblatt.

Jumblatt indicated that the slaying was linked to the plan for an international court to try suspects in former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri assassination.

"But we still have the majority actually and we can approve the draft, the convention between the Lebanese government and the United Nations," he said at the news conference.

Jumblatt said indictment by the international tribunal was something Syrian President Bashar Assad would want to avoid at all costs, and reason enough to kill other Lebanese leaders and "reduce the majority in the parliament."

"But whatever they do, we are here, we are here, and we are going to win," he declared to reporters.