Hezbollah hoped to humiliate the anti-Syrian politicians by forcing them to endorse the kidnappings and showing how little control the government has over the party.

Mr. Hariri, 60, an anti-Syrian politician, was killed along with 22 others when a car bomb exploded as his convoy was passing on a downtown Beirut street in February 2005.

Lebanon's ex-prime minister Saad al-Hariri (admittedly an anti-Syrian politician) says "this is fabricated by the Syrian ministry and some of its tools in Lebanon."

Ms. Rice spent two hours with Mr. Siniora, one hour with Mr. Berri and about 45 minutes with a group of anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians.

As anti-Syrian politicians and journalists were marked for assassination throughout the year and a series of bomb explosions tore through Christian areas, these fears seemed justified.

One other prominent journalist, Samir Kassir, and anti-Syrian politicians including George Hawi and Gebran Tueni, editor and publisher of the daily newspaper, An-Nahar, were killed in these attacks.

He was the seventh anti-Syrian politician and third member of the Lebanese parliament killed since the assassination of Rafik Hariri on 14 February 2005.

Several anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians blamed Syria.

In a December 2006 phone call, al-Mir bestowed his condolences to Atallah regarding the November 21 assassination of Pierre Gemayel, Lebanon's Minister of Industry and an anti-Syrian politician.

His father, Rafik Hariri, a leading anti-Syrian politician, was killed in a bombing in February, sparking the popular protests that eventually drove Syrian troops out of the country.