BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon is calling for international probes into the carbomb murder on Monday of a vocal anti-Syrian newspaper chief and lawmaker, hailed as a champion of freedom, the latest in a wave of attacks targeting critics of Damascus.

Gibran Tueni, 48, was killed along with three other people in a Beirut suburb, just hours after the Christian MP returned to Lebanon from France, where he had taken refuge fearing his life was in danger.

The bombing itself came hours before the publication of a report by UN chief investigator Detlev Mehlis on his probe into the murder in February of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, an attack also blamed on Syria.

The UN report pointed to fresh evidence further implicating senior Syrian officers in the murder of Hariri and raised doubts about the cooperation of Damascus in the probe.

The Lebanese government met in emergency session after the killing of Tueni and voted to call for international probes into the murders of Hariri, Tueni and more than a dozen other bombings targeting anti-Syrian figures over the past year.

Five cabinet members representing the Shiite Amal-Hezbollah coalition protested the decision by announcing they would suspend their participation in the government until further notice.

International condemnation of the latest murders was swift, with Lebanon's allies France and the United States leading the way.

"The murder... is yet another act of violence aimed at subjugating Lebanon to Syrian domination and silencing the Lebanese press," US President George W. Bush said in a statement released by the White House.

French President Jacques Chirac wrote to Tueni's widow to express his outrage saying Paris "condemns in the strongest terms this crime, which arouses horror and indignation".

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan described the killing as "cold-blooded" while British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose country holds the European Union's rotating presidency, called it a "cowardly" act aimed at destablising Lebanon.

The UN Security Council condemned "in the strongest terms" the "terrorist bombing".

Pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud said he was outraged by the killing, describing Tueni as a "symbol of freedom."

"His death only serves the enemies of Lebanon who have been exerting all efforts to weaken the country."

Hundreds of youths, who described him as "the voice" of the young people and the advocate of Lebanese "unity and sovereignty" massed outside An-Nahar's massive glass tower in downtown Beirut to pay tribute to their hero.

"It is a horrific message. They want to kill journalists to prevent them to write but our determination will ensure they do not succeed," said one journalist, Nadine.

Tueni's family announced that the funeral would be held on Wednesday while Greek Orthodox patriarch Elias Audi called for all Beirut's schools to be closed on Tuesday in a sign of mourning.

Tueni, director of the top-selling An-Nahar newspaper, was killed along with his driver Nicolas Flouti and two other people. About 30 others were wounded in the morning attack in the Christian suburb of Mkalles.

Police said the car bomb exploded near Tueni's armoured four-wheel drive vehicle, blasting it off the road into a ravine 100 metres (yards) away and engulfing it in flames.

A dozen cars were turned into charred shells by the blast, some flung into neighbouring woodland, and windows were shattered as far as 500 metres away. Druze leader and fellow MP Walid Jumblatt pointed the finger at Syria over the bombing, the 13th such attack since the blast that killed Hariri in February and plunged Lebanon into chaos not seen since the 1975-1990 civil war.

The attacks have created a climate of fear in Lebanon, with several anti-Syrian figures such as Hariri's MP son Saad spending much of their time out of the country.

Syrian Information Minister Mehdi Dakhlallah denied any role, and blamed "foreign interference."

Damascus claimed that the car bomb attack was part of a "larger vicious plan to implicate Syria and cause the maximum possible damage to its reputation.

The Hariri killing threw the spotlight on to Syria's dominant role in its smaller neighbour and in April Damascus pulled out the last of its troops from Lebanese soil after a 29-year military presence.

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