Lebanese demonstrated in their hundreds of thousands in central Beirut yesterday as the Hezbollah-led opposition vowed to step up its campaign to unseat the Western-backed Government.

The mass demonstration, which marked the tenth day of a sit-in that has paralysed life in the city centre, left much of the Government besieged in a hilltop Ottoman-era citadel, stoking fears of a new civil war.

The huge rally signalled an escalation in the Opposition’s campaign, which is expected to include blocking main roads and strikes, possibly aiming to shut down the only airport in Lebanon as well as its seaports.

Like its predecessor nine days ago, the rally yesterday was a noisy but good-natured event, with protesters packing two central squares and spilling into side streets and a flyover connecting the eastern and western halves of city.

Chanting calls for the resignation of Fouad Siniora, the Prime Minister, people in the crowd waved red-and-white Lebanese flags and listened to nationalist songs played over loudspeakers.

Some of the demonstrators have been camping out in central Beirut since the sit-in began on December 1. “We will stay here until the Government goes,” said Hussein Khalil, 28, from Tyre in south Lebanon, who shares a white canvas tent with several other Shia Hezbollah supporters.

The sea of Lebanese flags was dotted with the orange and green emblems of two Christian parties, emphasising that Hezbollah is the largest but not the only force comprising the Opposition. Hezbollah accuses the Government of serving the interests of the US and of having failed to give full support to the group’s fighters during its month-long war with Israel in the summer.

Last week, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, claimed that the Government had instructed the Lebanese Army to prevent fresh arms supplies from reaching his fighters during the war. The Army quickly denied this potentially explosive allegation of treachery. A Sunni Cabinet minister accused Sheikh Nasrallah of sedition and of “sanctioning the shedding of the Prime Minister’s blood”.

One banner portrayed Mr Siniora kissing Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, on the cheek during her visit to Beirut during the war.

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