SHOTLIST

1. Arrival of convoy with Alexander Sultanov, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister

2. Sultanov walking with officials

3. Pan from cameramen and photographers to Sultanov and Fawzi Salloukh, former Lebanese Foreign Minister

4. Mid of Sultanov

5. Mid of Salloukh

6. Wide of meeting

7. Cutaway cameramen

8. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic), Alexander Sultanov, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister:

"We discussed the international tribunal and other internal affairs. We agreed on the continuation of national dialogue, a dialogue of all the problems in Lebanon, because dialogue is the only way to save the national consensus and unity."

9. Cameramen

10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Fawzi Salloukh, former Lebanese Foreign Minister:

"Russia will take all necessary action to help and support in finding a solution to the problem."

11. Convoy leaving

12. Presidential palace

13. Sultanov at meeting with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud

14. Mid of Lahoud

15. Mid of Sultanov

16. Exterior, Prime Minister's office building

17. Lebanese flag

18. Various of meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora

19. Exterior of Ein El-Tineh Palace

20. Various of meeting with parliament speaker, Nabih Berri

STORYLINE:

Envoys from Russia and the UN were involved in Beirut on Tuesday in what may be a last-ditch attempt to win approval from Lebanon's opposing camps for an international tribunal into the assassination of Lebanon's prime minister, Rafik Hariri, a subject that's divided Lebanese opinion and which threatens the country's stability.

The parliament has put off approving a draft agreement with the United Nations, paralyzed by a political crisis between the government, which wants a multi-national tribunal to prosecute suspects in the 2005 assassination, and the Hezbollah-led opposition, which wants more discussion first.

The Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and the parliamentary majority have asked the United Nations to impose the Hariri tribunal and bypass the Lebanese legislature but opposition leaders have warned that such intervention could spell more trouble for the country.

Clashes over the issue have already caused nine deaths.

Opposition campaigners have been camping outside Saniora's office since December, 2006, paralyzing large parts of the capital's commercial district to demand his resignation but Saniora has refused to step down.

Russia's deputy foreign minister, Alexander Sultanov arrived for talks in Beirut with various Lebanese officials and the former Lebanese foreign minister Fawzi Salloukh.

Sultanov said that Russia was eager to help find a compromise, not impose a solution, stressing that the Lebanese need to find consensus through dialogue.

"We discussed the international tribunal," he said. "We agreed upon the continuation of the national dialogue, a dialogue of all the problems in Lebanon, because dialogue is the only way to save the national consensus and unity."

Fawzi Salloukh, who resigned as Lebanon's foreign minister, said that Russia would do what is necessary to help and support in finding a solution to the problem.

Russia, with a veto on UN Security Council resolutions, has enjoyed good relations with Lebanon and Syria, which has been widely accused of involvement in the assassination.

Sultanov also met with Lebanon's President Emile Lahoud, Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. He is then expected to travel to Syria, which remains an important player despite the withdrawal of its army from Lebanon in the wake of Hariri's assassination.

Along with Sultanov, the top UN legal chief Nicolas Michel was flying in later Tuesday to Beirut to help overcome the impasse.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, is scheduled to visit Syria next week, after a trip to Lebanon in March.

The anti-Syrian majority in Parliament blames Damascus for killing Hariri, an accusation Syria vehemently denies, and say the Syrians were using their Lebanese allies to undermine the formation of the tribunal.

SHOTLIST

++NIGHT SHOTS++

1. Exterior shot of Prime Minister's office in Beirut

2. Mid shot of Lebanese soldiers and armoured vehicle in position around Prime Minister's office

3. Mid shot of Lebanese soldiers

4. Wide shot of Lebanese soldiers and armoured vehicle

5. Wide shot of Prime Minister's office

6. Wide shot of Lebanese cabinet meeting

7. Mid shot of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora sitting at head of meeting

8. Mid shot of picture of murdered Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel placed in his position around meeting table

9. Various of cabinet ministers around table

10. Mid shot of picture of murdered Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel

11. Cameras

12. Mid shot of Lebanese Minister of Information, Ghazi Aridi, at press conference

13. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Ghazi Aridi, Lebanese Minister of Information:

"(The cabinet) approved the creation of an international tribunal between Lebanon and the United Nations and authorised the Justice Minister to sign this agreement with the United Nations and also to send this approval to the Lebanese Parliament for authorisation.''

14. Cameras

STORYLINE

The Lebanese government on Saturday approved an international tribunal for suspects in the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, despite warnings of mass protests by its opponent Hezbollah.

Last-ditch attempts to reach a compromise between the government and the pro-Syrian camp, led by Hezbollah, appeared to fail as the cabinet moved forward with its meeting for a UN created court.

The tribunal is a key bone of contention in the power struggle between allies and opponents of Syria in Lebanon.

Anti-Syrian forces - mainly Christian and Sunni Muslim - dominate the government, but are facing a campaign by the mainly Shiite pro-Syrian camp to bring the government down.

The political crisis became potentially explosive this week with the assassination of an anti-Syrian politician, raising worries of more violence that could tear apart the country's fragile sectarian seams.

The anti-Syrian bloc brought out some 800,000 people for a mass rally at the funeral of the politician, Pierre Gemayel, on Thursday.

Hezbollah has shown it can bring out similar numbers for its protests - and if it goes ahead with its threatened demonstrations, many fear it could start a spiral of street action.

Earlier on Saturday, two key anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians met with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah and a Syria supporter, in an apparent attempt to find a compromise.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora offered to put off the contentious Cabinet vote for several days if six pro-Hezbollah ministers who quit the government earlier this month returned.

Hezbollah demands that the government be changed to give it and its allies more power, or else it says it will launch mass protests to topple Saniora.

But the reconciliation bid appeared to have failed, and the Cabinet meeting approved a UN draft for the tribunal.

In the eyes of Hezbollah, the approval of the tribunal amounts to a rejection of its demands for a greater representation in the Cabinet.

The Shiite militant group and Lebanon's pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud, have denounced the current government as unconstitutional, because the constitution underlines that the government must represent all of Lebanon's main communities.

"(The cabinet) approved the creation of an international tribunal between Lebanon and the United Nations and authorised the Justice Minister to sign this agreement with the United Nations and also to send this approval to the Lebanese Parliament for authorisation,'' Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said after the vote.

Aridi's statement went on to say that Prime Minister Saniora insisted the approval of the tribunal was not meant as a provocation against Hezbollah and its allies.

For opponents of Syria, the court is a major priority, and they hope it will uncover the truth behind the February 2005 assassination of Hariri in a massive bomb blast that killed 22 others, which they accuse Damascus of orchestrating. Syria has denied any role in the killing.

The court, which will sit outside Lebanon and have a majority of non-Lebanese judges, is to try four Lebanese generals - top pro-Syrian security chiefs under Lahoud including his Presidential Guard commander, who have been under arrest for 14 months, accused of involvement in

Hariri's murder.

The UN investigation into Hariri's death has also implicated Brigadier General Assaf Shawkat, Syria's military intelligence chief and the brother-in-law of Syrian President Bashar Assad. But Shawkat is not in custody.

Hariri's death was the first in a string of attacks that killed five other prominent anti-Syrian figures - with Gemayel the most recent, in a bold daytime shooting on Tuesday.

Many Lebanese blame Syria in all the killings, which Damascus denies.

Since Gemayel's assassination, some ministers in Saniora's Cabinet have moved into the heavily guarded prime minister's building in downtown Beirut, fearing more slayings.

SHOTLIST:

1. Wide of funeral

2. Wife of Walid Eido, assassinated legislator, waving from balcony

3. Women crying and waving

4. Ambulance covered by Lebanese flag and poster of Eido

5. Youths chanting slogans whilst travelling with ambulance

6. Wide of funeral

7. Mid of Saad Hariri, son of Rafik Hariri, the assassinated former Lebanese prime minister, walking along in procession

8. Wide of funeral procession

9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Walid Jumblatt, Druse politician:

"Syrian regime with their allies are trying to reduce our majority in the parliament. They have killed yesterday a prominent member of parliament. They can kill three more, if they kill three more members we will lose the majority and this is their calculation so that the government of Saniora will fall down."

10. Mid of Hezbollah MP bloc's flag

11. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Hussein Hajj Hassan, Hezbollah MP:

"We condemn the terror act which led to the killing of legislator Walid Eido, his son, two of his bodyguards and several Lebanese citizens. And we think that these crimes are taking place and are synchronised by the political exposure in the country. We think that the politicians are invited to find a political solution to the crisis in order to deal with all the disputed issues, as well as dealing with the security exposure. Some intelligence parties are getting benefits and committing these acts of terror and committing seditious acts against the Lebanese."

12. Tilt down of Al-Khachekji Mosque, mourners, security

13. Wide of funeral procession, coffin being carried

14. Various mid shots of coffins being carried to mosque

15. Top shot of three coffins inside the mosque (containing bodies of Walid Eido, his son, and one of the bodyguards killed)

16. Relatives kissing a coffin

17. Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian majority bloc, in parliament arriving at the mosque

18. Worshippers praying at funeral

19. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian majority bloc in parliament:

"No one should think that this people will kneel and be frightened. I tell the criminals: you will be punished and you will be dragged to prisons and will face justice, God willing."

20. Body being lowered into grave

21. Eido's son crying

22. Another body being lowered into grave

23. Wide pan of cemetery

STORYLINE:

Tens of thousands of mourners bade farewell on Thursday to victims of a powerful car bombing in Beirut that killed a prominent anti-Syrian legislator and nine others as the Lebanese government - reeling from another blow targeting its supporters - sought international help.

A bomb ripped through Walid Eido's car on Wednesday as he drove from a seaside sports club, also killing his 35-year-old son, two bodyguards and six passers-by.

Thursday's funeral procession swelled to tens of thousands of mourners who escorted coffins carrying the bodies of Eido, his son and one of the bodyguards killed.

The mourners followed ambulances covered with Lebanese flags that drove from the American University Hospital in West Beirut to a mosque at the Shohada Cemetery several kilometres (miles) away for a prayer service and internment.

It drove down the main thoroughfare of Corniche Mazraa in the Muslim sector of the capital, where pictures of the assassinated politicians were posted on walls and overpasses and Eido's widow waved to the crowds from a balcony.

Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian majority bloc in parliament to which Eido belonged, Druse politician Walid Jumblatt and other prominent anti-Syrian leaders also marched in the procession.

Jumblatt, an anti-Syrian MP, said that if the Syrian regime killed three more MPs, "we will lose the majority and this is their calculation so that the government of Saniora will fall down."

One Hezbollah MP, whose party is pro-Syrian, also condemned the killings.

"Some intelligence parties are getting benefits and committing these acts of terror and acting seditiously against the Lebanese," Hussein Hajj Hassan said.

At the Al-Khachekji mosque, male relatives sobbed and bent to kiss the coffins laid next to one another.

The spiritual leader of Lebanon's Sunni Muslims, Grand Mufti of the Republic Sheik Mohammed Rashid Kabbani, led the prayers, with Saad Hariri, son of assassinated former prime minister Rafik Hariri, at his side.

Saad Hariri said Lebanon would not kneel before the killers and promised they would be brought to justice.

"No one should think that this people will kneel and be frightened," he said. "I tell the criminals, you will be punished and you will be dragged to prisons and will face justice, God willing."

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has called for an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers and the international community to assist in the investigation of Eido's assassination.

The blast that killed Eido was a new blow to the stability of an already conflict-torn nation.

It came just three days after the government, together with the United Nations, started putting together an international tribunal ordered by the UN Security Council to try suspects in the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut two years ago - a move strongly opposed by Syria and its allies in Lebanon.

Eido was a prominent supporter of the tribunal, a staunch follower of Hariri and the seventh anti-Syrian figure killed in Lebanon in the past two years.

Many in Lebanon have accused Syria of being behind the killings, a claim Damascus denies.

Lebanon's majority coalition blamed Syria for Wednesday's assassination.

Syria controlled Lebanon for 29 years until it was forced out after Hariri's assassination, and its Lebanese opponents believe it is seeking to regain domination by plunging the country into chaos.

Businesses, schools and government offices were closed on Thursday after the government declared a day of national mourning.

The killings were likely to further enflame Lebanon's bitter power struggle between Saniora's Western-backed government and its Syrian-backed opponents, led by the Hezbollah militant group.

As the fighting in the north, pitting the Lebanese Army against Palestinian militants, with Palestinian refugees under siege, continues, many fear the violence there and in Beirut could push the polarised nation, with a fragile balance of ethnic and religious groups, into a new civil war.

SHOTLIST:

1. Tilt down of Al-Khachekji Mosque, mourners, security

2. Wide of funeral procession, coffin being carried

3. Various mid shots of coffins being carried to mosque

4. Top shot of three coffins inside the mosque (containing bodies of Walid Eido, his son, and one of the bodyguards killed)

5. Relatives kissing a coffin

6. Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian majority bloc, in parliament arriving at the mosque

7. Various of worshippers praying at funeral

8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian majority bloc in parliament:

"No one should think that this people will kneel and be frightened. I tell the criminals: you will be punished and you will be dragged to prisons and will face justice, God willing."

9. Body being lowered into grave

10. Eido's son crying

11. Another body being lowered into grave

12. Wide pan of cemetery

STORYLINE:

Tens of thousands of mourners bade farewell on Thursday to victims of a powerful car bombing in Beirut that killed a prominent anti-Syrian legislator and nine others as the Lebanese government - reeling from another blow targeting its supporters - sought international help.

A bomb ripped through Walid Eido's car on Wednesday as he drove from a seaside sports club, also killing his 35-year-old son, two bodyguards and six passers-by.

Thursday's funeral procession swelled to tens of thousands of mourners who escorted coffins carrying the bodies of Eido, his son and one of the bodyguards killed.

The mourners followed ambulances covered with Lebanese flags that drove from the American University Hospital in West Beirut to a mosque at the Shohada Cemetery several kilometers away for a prayer service and internment.

At the mosque, male relatives sobbed and bent to kiss the coffins laid next to one another.

The spiritual leader of Lebanon's Sunni Muslims, Grand Mufti of the Republic Sheik Mohammed Rashid Kabbani, led the prayers, with Saad Hariri, son of assassinated former prime minister Rafik Hariri, at his side.

Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian majority bloc in parliament to which Eido belonged, said Lebanon would not kneel before the killers and promised they would be brought to justice.

"No one should think that this people will kneel and be frightened," he said. "I tell the criminals, you will be punished and you will be dragged to prisons and will face justice, God willing."

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has called for an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers and the international community to assist in the investigation of Eido's assassination.

The blast that killed Eido was a new blow to the stability of this conflict-torn nation.

It came just three days after the government, together with the United Nations, started putting together an international tribunal ordered by the U.N. Security Council to try suspects in the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut two years ago - a move strongly opposed by Syria and its allies in Lebanon.

Eido was a prominent supporter of the tribunal, a staunch follower of Hariri and the seventh anti-Syrian figure killed in Lebanon in the past two years.

Many in Lebanon have accused Syria of being behind the killings, a claim Damascus denies.

Lebanon's majority coalition blamed Syria for Wednesday's assassination.

Syria controlled Lebanon for 29 years until it was forced out after Hariri's assassination, and its Lebanese opponents believe it is seeking to regain domination by plunging the country into chaos.

SHOTLIST

1. Wide of area were bomb blast happened

2. Mid of men looking at the remains of a car

3. Cordon next to remains of a vehicle

4. People inspecting damage

5. Dented parked cars along the road

6. Mangled vehicles

7. Pan of damage

8.Damaged building

9. People looking at damage

10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Elie Roukoz, Beirut Resident:

" As you see the whole buildings are damaged, we felt that the ground is shaking up and down."

11. Cars along street in Beirut

12. Various of man reading paper

13. Pan of papers on the news stand

14. Mid of front page reading (ENGLISH) " MP Antoine Ghamen assassinated"

15. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Samer Mrad, Beirut Resident

" We want to see and to know the hands behind such acts and who has the interest. This is only affecting the poor and miserable people."

16. Lebanese security forces convoy along street

17. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Saad Hariri, Lebanese lawmaker heading the main anti-Syrian alliance in Parliament:

"The presidency does not belong to Saad Hariri, or to Hassan Nasrallah, or to Nabih Berri, or to Michel Aoun, or to any other party. The presidency belongs to the people of Lebanon."

18. Cutaway

19. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Saad Hariri, Lebanese lawmaker heading the main anti-Syrian alliance in Parliament:

"The International Tribunal, which will try those cowardly criminal killers, will also try those who sabotage the presidential elections."

20. Various of locked up shops

STORYLINE

Lebanese leaders pledged on Thursday to press ahead with a divisive election for president, to be held in Parliament in coming days, despite the car bombing assassination of an anti-Syrian lawmaker.

Wednesday's bomb killed Antoine Ghanem, an anti-Syria lawmaker, and six others in a Christian neighbourhood of Beirut and threatened to derail efforts to bring the country's rival parties together to agree on a head of state ahead of time, before voting is set to begin next week.

Investigators were at the sight examining the remains of the blast.

At least 67 were wounded in the explosion, which severely damaged buildings and set cars ablaze during rush hour on a busy street in the Sin el-Fil neighbourhood.

Ghanem, 64, a member of the right-wing Christian Phalange party, had returned from refuge abroad only two days earlier. He was the eighth anti-Syria figure and fourth governing coalition lawmaker to be assassinated in less than three years.

On Thursday Lebanese newspapers were focused entirely on the assassination.

Samer Mrad a Beirut resident said he wants to know who is behind the attack.

" We want to see and to know that hands behind such acts and who has the interest. This is only affecting the poor and miserable people," he said.

Coalition members blamed Syria for the death, but Damascus denied involvement, as it has for the previous seven assassinations, including the 2005 bombing death of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora asked the United Nations secretary-general in a letter to add the Ghanem assassination to an international probe into Hariri's slaying and other political crimes in Lebanon.

On Wednesday Hariri's son, who now heads the main anti-Syrian alliance in the Lebanese parliament, called the perpetrators of the attack "cowardly criminal killers".

"The presidency does not belong to Saad Hariri, or to Hassan Nasrallah, or to Nabih Berri, or to Michel Aoun, or to any other party. The presidency belongs to the people of Lebanon," Saad Hariri said.

Many people fear the divisions over the presidency could lead to creation of two rival governments, a grim threat to repeat the last two years of Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war when army units loyal to competing administrations battled it out.

President Emile Lahoud, an ally of Syria, is due to step down from the presidency by November 23 and government supporters see the vote as the opportunity to put one of their own in the post.

But Hezbollah and its allies have vowed to block any candidate they do not approve and they can do so by boycotting the ballots, preventing the needed two-thirds quorum of 85 votes.

If no candidate is agreed on by the time Lahoud steps down, Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and his cabinet would automatically take on executive powers.

If that happens, opposition supporters have said Lahoud might appoint a second government, a step many fear would break up the country.

Schools, universities and many businesses in Christian areas of Beirut, plus in the Mount Lebanon region north of the capital, closed on Thursday in a day of mourning and to observe a strike called by the Phalange Party.

A funeral was to be held Friday.

The trial of the Hezbollah members and supporters suspected of being behind the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, will finally start this week, nine years after his murder.

The suicide truck bomb attack that killed Hariri and 22 others on February 14, 2005 was one of the most dramatic top-level assassinations the Middle East and immediately caused an increase in what were already huge sectarian divisions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

The United Nations-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon will begin on Thursday on the outskirts of The Hague in the Netherlands.

However, the five key suspects behind the attack will be tried in absentia as they are still yet to be arrested.

They included four Hezbollah members indicted in 2011 with plotting the attack and another supporter charged last year. All of them remain at large.

The trial will be held under a hybrid system of international and Lebanese law.

Hezbollah has condemned the trial as a conspiracy by its archenemies the US and Israel. It's also denied any involvement in Hariri's assassination.

Despite widespread criticism of the trial, some inside Lebanon are optimistic that justice will prevail.

"We are confident that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon will conduct these proceedings and the procedure in a very fair way in order to let the Lebanese at last find out the truth," said Ibrahim Najjar, a former Lebanese Justice Minister.

Other are hoping that the trial will help bring an end to the string of political assassinations which have rocked the country since Hariri's death.

The last attack was on December 27, 2013 when former finance minster Mohammed Chatah, a Hezbollah critic and also former aide to Hariri, was killed in a car bombing in Beirut.

"We and the international community wanted the tribunal to punish the criminals and to stop political assassinations," said legislator Atef Majdalani, a member of the Future Movement bloc that is headed by Hariri's son, Saad, also a former prime minister.

"Truth will emerge, justice is coming, therefore you should either move along this road, the road of justice, or justice will get you," Majdalani added.

But many question whether justice will indeed be done while the key defendants in the case are still at large.

AP TELEVISION

++16:9++

1. Wide of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's grave with photos of him in the background and the statute of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon next to the grave

2. Close of the UN-ratified Statute reading (Arabic) "Statute of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon"

3. Mid of Hariri grave with photo on top

4. Wide of former Lebanese Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar walking in his house

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Ibrahim Najjar, former Lebanese Justice Minister:

"We are confident that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon will conduct these proceedings and the procedure in a very fair way in order to let the Lebanese at last find out the truth."

6. Close of Najjar's hands holding a pair of glasses

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Ibrahim Najjar, former Lebanese Justice Minister:

"I think that for the first time since 1943, Lebanon is about now to discover the truth within an independent tribunal."

8. Close of photograph of Najjar

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Ibrahim Najjar, former Lebanese Justice Minister:

"Yes, there is a fear, at least somebody, some witnesses have declared that they fear to appear before the court and to say everything they have in mind or in their knowledge. I think that there is a real fear because when you kill a witness the truth is affected, that is why I think that there are special precautions, special undertakings that have been decided by the tribunal in order to protect them."

10. Mid of traffic at the explosion site where Hariri was killed

11. Close of Hariri statue

12. Atef Majdalani, Lebanese Member of Parliament walking

13. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Atef Majdalani, Future Movement MP:

"We and the international community wanted the tribunal to punish the criminals and to stop political assassinations, and to say that political assassinations will not solve any problems and that criminals responsible will be punished."

14. Close of photo of Majdalani and Hariri

15. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr Atef Majdalani, Future Movement MP:

"Truth will emerge, justice is coming, therefore you should either move along this road, the road of justice, or justice will get you and punish the criminals among you."

FILE: AP TELEVISION

14 February, 2005

++4:3++

16. Various of Hariri assassination blast site with burnt out cars and emergency services attempting to control flames

17. Wide top shot of people gathering at Martyrs' Square in Beirut

SHOTLIST:

AP Television

1. Wide of funeral

2. Wife of Walid Eido, assassinated prominent anti-Syrian legislator waving from balcony

3. Women crying and waving

4. Ambulance covered by Lebanese flag and Eido's poster

5. Youths chanting slogans whilst travelling with ambulance

6. Wide of funeral

7. Mid of Saad Hariri, son of Rafik Hariri the slain former Lebanese prime minister walking along in procession

8. Wide of funeral procession

9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Walid Jumblatt, Druse politician and anti-Syrian legislator:

"Syrian regime with their allies are trying to reduce our majority in the parliament. They have killed yesterday (Wednesday) a prominent member of parliament. They can kill three more, if they kill three more members we will lose the majority and this is their calculation so that the government of Saniora will fall down. We have got to resist and we are calling and will call for elections for the lost MP Walid Eido and for the other one, Pierre Gemayel (assassinated minister) Whatever the price is, we have to do it to not allow the Syrians to achieve their aims."

10. Top view of funeral procession

11. Mid of officials during funeral

12. Mid of Hezbollah MP bloc's flag

13. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Hussein Hajj Hassan, Hezbollah MP:

"We condemn the terror act which led to the killing of legislator Walid Eido, his son, two of his bodyguards and several Lebanese citizens. And we think that these crimes are taking place and are synchronised by the political exposure in the country. We think that the politicians are invited to find a political solution to the crisis in order to deal with all the disputed issues, as well as dealing with the security exposure. Some intelligence parties are getting benefits and committing these acts of terror and acting seditiously against the Lebanese."

14. Hezbollah and Lebanese flag

AP Television

15. Mid of Ghazi Aridi, Lebanese information minister

16. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Ghazi Aridi, Lebanese information minister:

"Somebody is trying to say that neither the international tribunal nor anything else can secure the Lebanese or their leaders. We will keep resisting and we will face this series of terrorist acts."

POOL

17. Wide of crowd outside mosque

23. Spiritual leader of Lebanon's Sunni Muslim, Grand Mufti of the Republic Sheik Mohammed Rashid Kabbani leading prayers with Saad Hariri next to him and other men praying

24. Jumblatt seated

25. Young men crying over coffin

26. Men leaving mosque

27. Coffins being carried out of mosque

POOL

28. Coffins being carried out of mosque

29. People leaving mosque

30. Coffins being carried into cemetery

STORYLINE:

Tens of thousands bade farewell on Thursday to victims of a powerful car bombing that killed a prominent anti-Syrian legislator and nine others as the government - reeling from another blow targeting its supporters - sought international help.

The bomb ripped through Walid Eido's car on Wednesday as he drove from a seaside sports club, also killing his 35-year-old son, two bodyguards and six passers-by.

The funeral procession swelled to tens of thousands, escorting Eido's body and that of his son and a bodyguard behind ambulances covered with Lebanese flags.

It drove down the main thoroughfare of Corniche Mazraa in the Muslim sector, where pictures of the slain politicians were posted on walls and overpasses and Eido's widow waved to the crowds from a balcony.

Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian majority bloc in parliament to which Eido belonged to, Druse politician Walid Jumblatt and other prominent anti-Syrian leaders also marched in the procession.

Jumblatt, an anti-Syrian MP, said that if the Syrian regime kill three more MPs, "we will lose the majority and this is their calculation so that the government of Saniora will fall down."

"We have got to resist and we are calling and will call for elections for the lost MP Walid Eido and for the other one Pierre Gemayel (assassinated minister) whatever the price is, we have to do it to not allow the Syrians to achieve their aims," he said.

One Hezbollah MP, whose party is pro-Syrian, also condemned the killings.

"Some intelligence parties are getting benefits and committing these acts of terror and acting seditiously against the Lebanese," Hussein Hajj Hassan said.

The blast that killed Eido was a new blow to the stability of an already conflict-torn nation.

It came just three days after the government, together with the United Nations, started putting together an international tribunal ordered by the UN Security Council to try suspects in the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut two years ago.

The tribunal has been strongly opposed by Syria and its allies in Lebanon.

"Somebody is trying to say that neither the international tribunal nor anything else can secure the Lebanese or their leaders. We will keep resisting and we will face this series of terrorist acts," Ghazi Aridi, the Lebanese information minister said.

Eido was a prominent supporter of the tribunal, a staunch follower of Hariri and the seventh anti-Syrian figure killed in Lebanon in the past two years.

Many in Lebanon have accused Syria of being behind the slayings, a claim Damascus denies.

Lebanon's majority coalition blamed Syria for Wednesday's assassination.

Syria controlled Lebanon for 29 years until it was forced out after Hariri's assassination, and its Lebanese opponents believe it is seeking to regain domination by plunging the country into chaos.

Businesses, schools and government offices were closed on Thursday after the government declared a day of national mourning.

The killings were likely to further enflame Lebanon's bitter power struggle between Saniora's Western-backed government and its Syrian-backed opponents, led by the Hezbollah militant group.

As the fighting in the north, pitting the Lebanese Army against Palestinian militants, with Palestinian refugees under siege, continues, many fear the violence there and in Beirut could push the polarised nation, with a fragile balance of ethnic and religious groups, into a new civil war.

LEBANON REVIEW 2014

SOURCE: AP TELEVISION/POOL/FUTURE TV

RESTRICTIONS: MIDDLE EAST EXTRA CLIENTS ONLY/NO ACCESS

LENGTH: 7.06

SHOTLIST:

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 2 January 2014

++16:9++

1. Various of people crowding round the site of car bomb

2. Wide of the crowd being held back by police

3. Mid of soldiers arriving at the scene

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 16 January 2014

++16:9++

4. Wide of people removing piece of cloth covering a billboard featuring image of former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, words reading: (Arabic) "Time for Justice"

5. Close-up of digital clock showing number '1', counting the number of days the trial will take

6. Tilt-down from billboard to people gathered around sign

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 14 February 2005

++4:3++

7. Various of Hariri assassination blast site with burnt out cars and emergency services attempting to control flames

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 8 March 2014

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8. Various of women marching

9. Mid of women holding posters outside the Lebanese parliament

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 6 April 2014

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10. Wide of Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam arriving at the Grand Serail

11. High shot of Salam and relatives sitting down and surrounded by the media

12. SOUNDBITE: (English) Tammam Salam, Lebanese Prime Minister:

"I am sure we will be able to put matters in the right perspective taking into consideration what our people, what the Lebanese, are looking forward to."

AP Television

Tripoli, Lebanon - 3 April 2014

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13. Pan across Syrian refugees at UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) registration centre

14. Tilt-up from Syrian refugee child Omar to his mother Bushra, who is the one millionth Syrian refugee to be registered in the region

15. Bushra and her children accompanied by UNHCR employee

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 12 November 2014

++16:9++

++AUDIO AS INCOMING++

16. SOUNDBITE: (English) Maha Yahya, Carnegie Centre for Middle Eastern Studies:

"The challenge today is waking up to the realisation that this is a very protracted conflict. It's not going to end tomorrow. It's going to take some time. We don't know how long, but there is a large number of people who are not going home soon."

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 23 April 2014

++16:9++

17. Pan of lawmaker and former army commander, Michel Aoun, arriving at parliament

18. Pan of lawmaker and former Prime Minister, Fouad Saniora (right) arriving

19. Pan of presidential candidate Henry Helou (left) and lawmaker Akram Shohayeb arriving

Pool

Beirut, Lebanon - 23 April 2014

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20. Various of lawmakers counting votes

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 19 November 2014

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21. SOUNDBITE: (English) Sami Nader, Middle East affairs analyst and Professor at Saint Joseph University, Beirut:

"The Lebanese missed the opportunity to elect a president 'Made In Lebanon' by May 25. After this, the problem now to get a solution you need kind of a regional consensus. You need a deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia, mainly. And this deal doesn't seem in (on) the horizon yet."

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 20 June 2014

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22. Wide of police standing outside the hotel in Hamra where suspects were arrested

23. Wide shot of the area where the suspects where arrested

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 25 June 2014

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24. Close-up of hotel room where a suicide bomber detonated his vest in the Savoy Hotel in Raouche, Beirut

25. Wide of first responders

26. Wide of tourists leaving the hotel on foot and answering questions from reporters

AP Television

Arsal, Lebanon - 6 August 2014

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27. Wide of smoke rising in mountain area above Arsal

28. Close-up shot of smoke rising

29. Various of army tanks pulling into Arsal

30. Various of ambulances driving into Arsal

31. Wide of soldiers riding in armoured vehicles

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 19 November 2014

++16:9++

32. SOUNDBITE: (English) Sami Nader, Middle East affairs analyst and Professor at Saint Joseph University, Beirut:

"This Arsal war showed how fragile is the situation in Lebanon. How the borders are not really controlled. And how much capabilities and support the Lebanese army need."

AP Television

Fnaydek, Lebanon - 3 September 2014

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33. Various of crowd carrying the coffin containing body of Lebanese soldier Sergeant Ali Sayid, moving towards mosque, AUDIO: gun fire

34. Poster showing Sayid

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 19 November 2014

++16:9++

35. SOUNDBITE: (English) Sami Nader, Middle East affairs analyst and Professor at Saint Joseph University, Beirut:

"The Lebanese army in a way was victim. Yes, the Lebanese army was isolated. It's the only remaining Lebanese institution. One has to keep in mind that we don't have a president, there is a void at the level of the presidency, the parliament is practically freezed, all what they have achieved is to prolong their own mandate, to extend their own mandate and the Lebanese government is really in a very fragile situation."

Future TV - No Access Lebanon

Tripoli, Lebanon - September 2014

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36. Wide of people waving Islamic State flags

37. Mid of Sheikh Khaled Hoblos speaking to the crowd

AP Television

Tripoli, Lebanon - 26 October 2014

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38. Wide of soldiers running

39. Wide shot of soldiers firing weapons

40. Various of families being evacuated

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 20 November 2014

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41. SOUNDBITE: (English) Nadim Houry, Human Rights Watch:

"There is a lot of speculation today about ISIS' strength in Lebanon. But at this stage there is no indication that ISIS is going to seep through Tripoli tomorrow and control the city. Quite the contrary. I mean we saw that the army was actually able to beat back many of these groups and that actually many of these groups, while they may be Islamist, are not necessarily affiliated with ISIS."

AP Television

Brital, Lebanon - 10 September 2014

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42. Various of Syrian tents burnt to the ground

43. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Khaled Darwish, 11-year-old Syrian refugee:

"When we returned, we found that the tents were all burnt and black and I found all my toys burnt. Everything was burnt. Even my bicycle was burnt. All my toys and my ball."

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 15 December 2014

44. High shot of Wahda al-Sayyed, wife of kidnapped soldier Khaled Moqbel, pouring gasoline on tyres in street

45. Police trying to move al-Sayyed away, but she throws lighted paper to set tyres on fire

46. Wide of tyres burning

47. Soldier guarding the scene

48. Pan right of pictures of captured soldiers and police officers on a billboard

49. Wide of photos next to tents where relatives of the kidnapped are protesting

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 26 November 2014

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50. Wide of memorial to mark the death of Lebanese singer Sabah

51. Close-up of photograph of Sabah

52. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Lina Fghali Maalouf, Relative of Sabah:

"The people have lost a column from Baalbek's ancient ruins."

53. Mid of friends hugging in grief

54. Pull focus of decoration

LEADIN:

2014 has been a tumultuous year for Lebanon, as Syria's civil war continued to spill over into the country.

From managing one million refugees, to suicide bombings and clashes between government forces and Islamic militants, the past year has been a challenging one.

STORYLINE:

January 2nd, just two days into the new year and a deadly car bomb shakes the Beirut suburb Haret Hreik - known for being a Hezbollah stronghold.

The attack kills five people, wounds dozens more and raises fears that the country is being pulled in opposite directions by sectarian tension.

January also signals the start of the long-awaited trial over the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri - nine years after his death.

From The Hague, in the Netherlands, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) will try five suspects, all tied to Hezbollah, for Hariri's death.

There are still many questions to answer, not least the whereabouts of the five suspects - they've not been caught and are being tried in absentia.

In February, ten months after becoming prime minister, Tammam Salam finally forms a government.

Salam's 24-member national unity Cabinet includes members of the Western-backed coalition as well as those of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group and its allies.

"I am sure we will be able to put matters in the right perspective taking into consideration what our people, what the Lebanese, are looking forward to," he says at the time.

Many hundreds of women and activists march to Lebanon's parliament to show their support for victims of domestic violence to mark International Women's Day on 8 March.

Several high profile cases of domestic murders hit the headlines in 2014.

This year, the first Lebanese law against domestic violence was passed, offering Lebanese women some protection from abuse.

April 3rd is something of a milestone in the country.

Three years after the beginning of the Syrian conflict, Lebanon saw the one millionth Syrian to be registered as a refugee.

Almost one in four people in Lebanon are now refugees from neighbouring Syria.

"The challenge today is waking up to the realisation that this is a very protracted conflict. It's not going to end tomorrow. It's going to take some time. We don't know how long but there is a large number of people who are not going home soon. So their needs need to be addressed very quickly before it explodes in all of our faces," says Maha Yahya, from the Carnegie Centre for Middle Eastern Studies.

The country's infrastructure - from schools and hospitals to rubbish collection - remains over burdened, with some communities now imposing restrictions on refugee numbers.

In May, President Michel Suleiman left office, leaving behind an empty seat after parliament failed to elect his successor. The 25 May deadline passes, but no replacement is found.

"The Lebanese missed the opportunity to elect a president 'Made In Lebanon' by May 25," explains political analyst Sami Nader.

"After this, the problem now to get a solution you need kind of a regional consensus. You need a deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia, mainly. And this deal doesn't seem on the horizon yet."

A candidate must secure at least a two thirds majority in the 128-member parliament to become president.

Despite holding parliamentary meetings throughout the year to try and solve the issue - to this day the position remains unfilled.

In June and July the country is once again on high alert after a series of suicide bombings.

Suspects arrested in Hamra in June are believed to be affiliated with the Islamic State group and are said to have been planning an attack against the Speaker of Parliament, Nabi Berri.

Days later, flames engulf part of the four-star Duroy Hotel by Beirut's corniche after a suicide bomber blows himself up during a police raid on his room.

The suicide bomber was a Saudi national. His collaborator, also Saudi. This adds to the strain between Lebanon and the Gulf states.

The boldest incursion of jihadi fighters into Lebanese territory comes in August, when militants launch an offensive on the Syrian-Lebanese border town of Arsal.

The army regains control of the area, but locals and Syrian refugees, who have already fled the neighbouring civil war, are displaced once again.

In early August it's reported that 20 soldiers and policemen have been taken hostage by the militants.

"This Arsal war showed how fragile is the situation in Lebanon. How the borders are not really controlled. And how much capabilities and support the Lebanese army need," says Nader.

On 28 August, social media starts to report that one of the captives, soldier Ali Sayid, has been beheaded.

Massive crowds attend his funeral on 3rd September in Fnaydek.

A few days later the group says it has beheaded a second soldier, 20-year-old Abbas Medlej - sparking fears for the other hostages held by the group.

"The Lebanese army in the way was victim," says Nader.

"Yes, the Lebanese army was isolated. It's the only remaining Lebanese institution. One has to keep in mind that we don't have a president, there is a void at the level of the presidency, the parliament is practically freezed, all what they have achieved was to prolong their own mandate, to extend their own mandate and the Lebanese government is really in a very fragile situation."

The country's sectarian crisis comes to a head in October when fighting between government forces and gunmen erupts in Tripoli.

The city has become a hot bed for Islamic militants with firebrand clerics like Sheikh Khaled Hoblos openly preaching in the streets.

Nadim Houry of Human Rights Watch, appeals for calm.

"There is a lot of speculation today about ISIS' strength in Lebanon. But at this stage there is no indication that ISIS is going to seep through Tripoli tomorrow and control the city. Quite the contrary."

"I mean we saw that the army was actually able to beat back many of these groups and that actually many of these groups, and that although many of these groups while they may be Islamist, are not necessarily affiliated with ISIS. But almost, that sort of the issue here is, I think the main challenge is ISIS is able to frame the terms of the debate in many countries.

"And what is needed in Lebanon are pre-emptive strategies to undercut the potential implementation, or growth of ISIS movements."

The four day gun battle claims 20 lives as the army slowly regains control of Tripoli's Bab al-Tabbaneh neighbourhood - though the gang leaders they're hunting escape.

After three years of accepting Syrian refugees into the country, Lebanon has had enough.

On 18 October, it's reported that officials have closed the border between the two countries, despite pressure from the UN to keep it open.

According to official numbers, more than 1.2 million Syrian refugees now live in Lebanon - representing more than 20 percent of the population.

Refugees also appear to be targeted by disgruntled Lebanese citizens.

Eleven-year-old Khaled Darwish came back to his tent to find it burned to the ground.

"When we returned, we found that the tents were all burnt and black and I found all my toys burnt. Everything was burnt. Even my bicycle was burnt. All my toys and my ball," he says.

As the year draws to a close, the soldiers and police officers held hostage by Islamic militants, are no closer to being released.

The families of the hostages continue to protest, their anger now aimed at the government who they say haven't done enough.

Four soldiers have so far been executed by their captors.

The 26 November, saw the passing of one of the country's legendary singers.

Lebanese diva Sabah, died aged 87.

Mourners pay tribute to her incredible musical talent, provocative charm and huge heart.

As relative Lina Fghali Maalouf says, "The people have lost a column from Baalbek's ancient ruins."

===========================================================

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SHOTLIST

1. 'An-Nahar' newspaper building with big poster of Gibran Tueni on side

2. Close up on poster

3. People marching

4. Protesters shouting slogans

5. Various of demonstration, flag waving people

6. Various of closed shops, banks and schools

7. Various of security forces on the streets

8. Newspapers on sale

9. Various of newspapers

10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Vox pop:

"We ask for a firm decision about the Syrians and we call to impose sanctions on them and even change the regime. This regime looks very criminal, we cannot reach an understanding with them."

11. Various of mourning signs in Sassine Place in Ashrafieh (area of Beirut which Tueni represented in parliament), pictures of Tueni and Lebanese flags

12. Cars driving through the street with Tueni posters, part of funeral procession

13. Various of funeral procession, coffins (of Tueni and his two bodyguards) draped in Lebanese flags being taken through Sassine

14. Atef Majdalani, MP from Hariri bloc in parliament, reading newspaper

15. Cutaway photo of Atef Majdalani and former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri

16. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Atef Majdalani, MP from Hariri bloc in Lebanese parliament:

"We call on the international community to stop these terrorist operations, these crimes and these assassinations that are being carried out by totalitarian regimes, by dictatorial and oppressive regimes."

17. Various of funeral, crowd holding signs and waving Lebanese flags

STORYLINE:

Thousands of flag-waving Lebanese - both Christian and Muslim - bid farewell on Wednesday to murdered newspaper editor Gibran Tueni.

The mass turn-out demonstrated the level of anger felt towards Syria, which has been blamed for the Monday car bombing which killed Tueni.

A general strike called in mourning for Tueni was widely respected with banks, businesses and schools closing their doors for the day.

Hundreds of Lebanese troops and police took up position in a central square where, on March 14, about a million people heard Tueni call for the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon.

An outspoken critic of Syria, Tueni was killed by a car bomb on Monday as he was being driven to work through an industrial suburb of Beirut.

The 48-year old was the fourth anti-Syrian figure to be killed since February.

The series of bombings began with the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a truck bombing.

A previously unknown group has claimed responsibility for the blast that killed Tueni and two bodyguards, and wounded 30 other people.

But Tueni's colleagues and political allies have blamed Syria, which has denied involvement.

In the Beirut district of Ashrafieh, which Tueni represented in parliament, several thousand people marched behind his coffin and those of his bodyguards.

Others waited outside An-Nahar's offices in the city centre, where a giant portrait of Tueni hung down the side of the building.

Men, women and children - including families and political activists - waved Lebanese flags and held pictures of Tueni.

Many shouted slogans against Syria and its President Bashar Assad.

The strike that anti-Syrian groups had called in mourning for Tueni was observed not only in Beirut, but also in the southern provincial capital of Sidon and in the mountains of central Lebanon.

But in eastern Lebanon, where pro-Syrian groups are dominant, the strike call was ignored.

Opponents of Syrian influence in Lebanon are counting on the public anger over Tueni's killing to bolster their cause and close ranks in the face of what they see as a Syrian threat to pick off their leaders one by one.

Meantime, on Tuesday the chief U.N. investigator into the Hariri assassination, German magistrate Detlev Mehlis, told the U.N. Security Council that the latest evidence strengthened his belief that Syrian and Lebanese intelligence officials were involved in the murder.

Mehlis had interviewed Tueni as a witness.

Hariri's death in February sparked mass protests and intensified international pressure which forced Syria to withdraw its army from Lebanon after nearly three decades of political and military control.

Syria has denied involvement in Hariri's killing.

France circulated a resolution in the Security Council co-sponsored by Britain and the United States, which would broaden the scope of the U.N. investigation to include all the attacks in Lebanon since October 1, 2004.

The draft resolution seemed to deflect the Lebanese government's request for an inquiry into Tueni's killing and an international tribunal for the suspected killers of Hariri.

SHOTLIST

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

STORYLINE:

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.

SHOTLIST

1. Wide exterior of parliament building in Damascus with troops on parade

2. Various of Syrian President Bashar al Assad's arrival

3. Wide of Assad addressing parliament

5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Bashar al Assad, Syrian President:

"We stood firmly against the war in Iraq. We opposed to the occupation and insisted on the establishment of a timeline for the withdrawal of the occupying foreign troops. We believe the Iraqi people have the right to resist this occupation, but we also support the political process in Iraq, on the condition that all different sects of Iraqis are represented in that process. We let it be known that we are ready to make every effort to establish a national dialogue in Iraq. Not because we want to please anybody, but because we are sincere in our desire to achieve stability for our brothers in Iraq and the region. Let me make this very clear - our role in Iraq is to help the Iraqi people get through the current national crisis and not to help the occupation forces clean up the mess they are in."

6. Wide of parliament hall - members of parliament applauding

7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Bashar al Assad, Syrian President:

"The issue of the International Court (to try suspects in the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri) is strictly between Lebanon and the United Nations, as far as we are concerned. It does not concern us directly. Syria will not to co-operate, on this or any other issue, if its national sovereignty is threatened in any way."

8. Wide of parliament hall - Members of Parliament applauding

9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Bashar al Assad, Syrian President:

"We have not seen any progress as far as the peace process is concerned. We have not had any contact with Israel, secret or otherwise, because Israel is not ready on the official and popular level for a just and comprehensive peace, which requires strong leadership that can take decisive decisions, in addition to a mature public opinion that can push their governments in that direction."

10. Wide of parliament hall - members of parliament applauding

11. Assad waving to crowd as members of parliament cheer and applauding

12. Wide of parliament hall - members of parliament cheering and applauding

STORYLINE

Syrian President Bashar al Assad said on Thursday the current Israeli government was weak and not prepared for a just peace with its neighbours.

Addressing the opening of the newly elected parliament, the Syrian leader also denied direct or secret contacts with Israel and stressed the longstanding Syrian demand for withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Golan Heights in return for peace with the Jewish state.

"We have not had any contact with Israel, secret or otherwise, because Israel is not ready on the official and popular level for a just and comprehensive peace, which requires strong leadership that can take decisive decisions, in addition to a mature public opinion that can push their governments in that direction," he said.

He noted that the peace process had failed to progress in the absence of an honest broker, an allusion to the US tilt toward Israel.

Assad also said that Syria would make every effort to help establish a national dialogue in Iraq and restore stability to the country for the sake of the Iraqi people, but stressed his government had no interest in offering support to the US-led coalition forces currently in Iraq.

"We are ready to make every effort to establish a national dialogue in Iraq. Not because we want to please anybody, but because we are sincere in our desire to achieve stability for our brothers in Iraq and the region," Assad said.

"Let me make this very clear - our role in Iraq is to help the Iraqi people get through the current national crisis and not to help the occupation forces clean up the mess they are in," he added.

Assad's comments come on the heels of landmark talks on Iraq between US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, during the International Conference on Iraq.

Officials on both sides were hopeful that the meeting, which took place last week in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, would mark a starting point for a new relationship between the Syria and the US.

Assad also commented on efforts by the members of the Lebanese government to establish an international tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri.

Assad said the matter was "strictly between Lebanon and the United Nations, as far as we are concerned."

It did not, he said, concern Syria directly.

Syria is accused by many of orchestrating the assassination of Hariri, who was vocally opposed to Syria's military and political involvement in Lebanon.

Damascus vehemently denies any involvement.