Youssef is still at large although the standard-bearer of the Franjieh clan, Suleiman Franjieh, had publicly pledged to help bring the culprit to justice. Suleiman told a news conference at his countryside home in Bneshi Sunday that he was urging Youssef's family to pressure him into giving himself to the authorities.

Saleh, 32, was given a hero's funeral by Samir Geagea's LF in Besharri on Saturday. Tony Issa, 28, another LF activist wounded by Youssef Franjieh's fire, died from his gunshot wounds in hospital Sunday.

Geagea sent word from his Defense Ministry prison in Yarze to his rank and file to abstain from vengeful action that could trigger a bloodbath in the land of the cedars. Suleiman Franjieh reciprocated in kind and praised the way with which Mrs. Geagea sought to cool tempers after the incident.

Geagea's message was carried by Batroun legislator Butros Harb of Qornet Shahwan, who visited the LF commander in prison and then told a news conference Geagea would be out of jail before July's end to assume a prominent role in politics.

Meanwhile, a shootout between activists of Walid Jumblat's Progressive Socialist Party and rival Talal Arslan's Lebanese Democratic Party erupted in the town of Hlalieh in the Baabda district east of Beirut, leaving five men wounded and hospitalized, including a turbaned sheikh.

Arslanists accused PSP activist Imad Zeineddine of staring a shouting match with their followers in Hlalieh that spiraled into a fist fight on Friday. When several sheikhs intervened to stop the elections-linked quarrel, Zeineddine drew a Kalashnikov assault rifle and opened up. The other side fired back, LDP said in a statement Saturday.

The army intervened, disengaged the combatants and made several arrests in house-to-house raids. An Nahar said police seized Imad Zeineddine, 51, after he fled Hlalieh to south Lebanon's town of Marjayoun. - Naharnet