A United Nations vote to set up a tribunal for suspects in the killing of Rafik Hariri, former Lebanese Prime Minister, has been given an uncertain welcome in Lebanon.

Cheering crowds in Beirut greeted the decision by the Security Council last night with flag waving and celebratory gunfire in the streets, but some Lebanese newspapers this morning echoed Syria’s suggestion that a tribunal may cause even greater instability in the country.

Hariri was killed by a truck bomb in February 2005, initial UN investigations implicated Syrian authorities in his murder. The dispute over Hariri’s death is at the centre of a deep political crisis between the Western-backed government and the Syrian-backed opposition, led by Hezbollah.

There has been no official reaction from Hezbollah to the UN resolution, but the pro-opposition al-Akhbar newspaper said setting up the court without consensus “raises serious concern for security and stability”.

“The establishment of the court according to an international resolution and without the agreement of a large segment of citizens ... widens and deepens the fracture among Lebanese,” Omar Neshabi wrote.

Tensions in the divided country have become increasingly sectarian with the most intense internal fighting since the country's civil war this month. More than 50 people have been killed in fighting between the Lebanese Army and Fatah al-Islam, a heavily-armed pro-Syrian splinter group.

Hariri supporters denied that the move would lead to increased violence. “It is a historic moment an opportunity for all Lebanese to unite... the court is not about vendettas, but about justice for all,” said Hariri’s son Saad, leader of the parliamentary majority. "Enough divisions. .. Let's put our energies together for the sake of the nation."

The UN resolution gives the Lebanese government until June 10 to settle the arrangements for a court in a neutral country.

The Lebanese parliament has until now been unable to agree over the scope and remit of a tribunal to study the circumstances of the former Prime Minister’s death.

The Security Council voted yesterday by 10-0 in favour of the tribunal, but five countries abstained. Russia, China, South Africa, Indonesia and Qatar objected to using Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which deals with threats to international peace and allows military enforcement, as a basis for the resolution.

Wang Guangya, the Chinese ambassador to the UN, warned that only a tribunal supported by all Lebanese factions would be effective.

The council's move "will give rise to a series of political and legal problems, likely to add to the uncertainties embedded in the already turbulent political and security and situation in Lebanon," he said.

The vote had been requested by Fouad Siniora, Lebanese Prime Minister, who claimed the trial would allow for “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” to be revealed.

The UK and the United States were among the six sponsors of the resolution.

Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, said: “The Security Council has demonstrated its support for the government of Lebanon and its commitment to the principle that there shall be no impunity for political assassinations, in Lebanon or elsewhere.”

Reaction to the tribunal from Syria was hostile. Tishrin, the government newspaper, said in an editorial this morning that the resolution was “absolutely an American-Israeli one and could never be regarded as an expression of the international will”.

Bashar Assad, President of Syria, has threatened not to cooperate with the court if it infringes on Syrian national sovereignty.

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