BEIRUT - Lebanese authorities have arrested a Syrian man on suspicion of involvement in the killing earlier this month of anti-Syrian MP and newspaper magnate Gibran Tueni, a judicial source said Tuesday.

Abdel Kader Abdel Kader, 30, was arrested after he was questioned by military investigating magistrate Rashid Mezher over the December 12 Beirut car bombing that killed Tueni, the source said.

Abdel Kader, who sold scrap metal from a patch of land he rented near the scene of the killing in east Beirut, was under suspicion because of phone calls he made immediately before and after the bombing, the source said.

Mezher has asked for Abdel Kader, the first suspect to be arrested over the killing, to continue to be held at military justice headquarters in Beirut for questioning.

Many in Lebanon have attributed the killing of Tueni, 48, to Syria. Damascus condemned the bombing.

Tueni, director of the An-Nahar daily, his driver and his bodyguard were killed a day after his return from France where he had spent some time for fear of an attempt on his life amid a spate of attacks on critics of Syria.

Thirty others were wounded in the blast that severely damaged nearby buildings.

Tueni was instrumental in the campaign to end three decades of Syrian political and military domination of Lebanon and has been hailed as a "martyr" of the country's fragile regained independence since Syrian troops left in April.

But the main anti-Syrian alliance governs in uneasy alliance with a pro-Damascus Shiite bloc in the Lebanese parliament that remains deeply uneasy about the growing international consensus against its sponsors.

The pro-Damascus speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri, told the inaugural session in Cairo of a new pan-Arab legislature that Lebanon could "not deal single-handedly with the plot facing it and, through it, Syria".

The conspirators' goal was to "stoke up political, religious and sectarian tension in Lebanon" and "deprive us of any semblance of international or Arab security so that we again become a free-fire zone for Israeli wars and aggressions", said Berri, leader of the pro-Syrian Shiite faction Amal.

The five pro-Syrian ministers in the governing coalition are currently boycotting cabinet meetings in protest at the position of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.

Tueni's killing sparked international condemnation, including a UN Security Council statement condemning the death of "a patriot who was an outspoken symbol of freedom and the sovereignty and political independence of Lebanon."

The assassination was one of a string of attacks targeting anti-Syrian politicians and journalists, most notably the February killing of five-time premier Rafiq Hariri in a massive Beirut seafront blast.

There have been 15 attacks and political killings in Lebanon since October 2004. Massive street protests and international pressure after Hariri's death led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops and intelligence personnel.

Lebanese security forces have been conspicuously present on Beirut streets over Christmas and ahead of the New Year, in particular in commercial districts of the capital.

Detlev Mehlis, who has been heading a UN investigation into Hariri's death, has accused Syria of the killing, a charge strongly denied by Damascus.

Rafiq Hariri's son and political heir, Saad, has accused the "terrorist regime" in Syria of seeking to topple the Beirut government.

Damascus has said that it is the target of an international witch-hunt over its alleged failure to prevent militants crossing into Iraq and support for what Washington calls "terrorist groups" such as Lebanon's Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

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