BEIRUT - Lebanon's anti-Syrian Progressive Socialist Party said on Sunday that one of its members had died of injuries sustained in clashes with supporters of Hezbollah and its allies.

"Lutfi Zeineddin died on Sunday morning of injuries received during attacks by supporters of the opposition on those who participated on Saturday in the anniversary of the assassination of Rafiq Hariri," a statement said.

Hariri, a billionaire former prime minister, was killed in a massive Beirut bomb attack on February 14, 2005, that was widely blamed on Syria, although Damascus has denied any involvement.

Hundreds of thousands of people joined Saturday's Beirut rally on the fourth anniversary of the killing, ahead of June elections pitting the Western-backed parliamentary majority headed by Hariri's son and political heir, Saad, against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.

The army in a statement confirmed the death of a Lebanese man in scuffles on Saturday in and around the capital and said damage had also been caused to public and private property in and around Beirut.

On Sunday evening, the army announced the "arrest of suspects" accused of involvement in Saturday's violence, without specifying their number or political affiliation.

Hezbollah denied any involvement in the clashes.

"Hezbollah was not involved in the trouble that broke out in Beirut on Saturday," a spokesman for the Shiite movement was quoted as saying by the official National News Agency.

A security official had told AFP that the clashes pitted supporters of the majority against allies of the Hezbollah-led alliance in several west Beirut neighbourhoods both before and after Saturday's rally.

"Some people threw stones and some were beaten up in the scuffles that left several with minor injuries," said the official, who did not want to be named.

Druze leader Walid Jumblatt of the Progressive Socialist Party was among the most vocal speakers at the rally.

The army also said it is questioning people "who on Sunday afternoon attacked cars on the Beirut to Shtura road, wounding three people." -AFP