Lebanese opposition calls for uprising

Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh, however, warned the government would not tolerate public disturbances. "The state will not stand idly by," he said.

In the first high-level political fallout after Monday's assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Tourism Minister Farid Khazen resigned, saying the government was incapable of running the country.

The departure of Khazen, who was close to pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, was a surprise but not expected to lead to a government collapse. Karami quickly appointed Wadih Khazen as the new minister. The two men are not related.

The anti-Syrian opposition, which has blamed the government and its Syrian backers for Hariri's assassination, called on Lebanese to stage a peaceful "independence uprising."

In a statement, Lahoud vowed that the government would "uncover the circumstances of the ugly crime." The United States and France have called for an international inquiry. Karami's government has rejected that but commissioned foreign experts, including Swiss forensic scientists, to assist in the probe.

Later Friday, the United Nations announced that at the request of the Security Council it was sending a team led by Ireland's deputy police commissioner Peter Fitzgerald to Beirut in the next few days to investigate the assassination.