Demonstrations sparked by the killing of a popular former prime minister in February had driven a pro-Syrian government from office, and calls for a Syrian withdrawal were gaining momentum.

Soon the former pro-Syrian government is renominated, and the United States signals a new willingness to bite the bullet and deal with Hezbollah despite the party's history of violence.

Despite the anger over his death, those were heady, upbeat days for many Lebanese, who helped force the pro-Syrian government to resign.

Another opposition member said the pro-Syrian government pressured people to turn out and some reports said Syria had bused in people from across the border.

But the protesters have become emboldened by the resignation last week of the pro-Syrian government of Prime Minister Omar Karami, who quit in the face of street demonstrations.

Lebanon's political reawakening took a significant new turn yesterday when popular protests brought down the pro-Syrian government of Prime Minister Omar Karami.

These talks, however, will be conducted with the largely pro-Syrian Muslim government as mandated in the new charter.

Parliamentary elections are scheduled for May, but with a purely pro-Syrian government in charge of setting up the election, accusations of impropriety and gerrymandering are bound to create further tension.

From the beginning of his political life, he situated himself in the opposition to the pro-Syrian governments that ruled the country.

Unlike the revolutions in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, this movement did not seek to overturn disputed election results, but did cause the pro-Syrian government of Lebanon to fall.