4 killed in Lebanon clashes

More than 50 people were wounded, including five Lebanese soldiers, in clashes the officials said began overnight when three hand grenades exploded in a street separating rival districts in Tripoli, Lebanon's second-largest city.

Automatic weapons fire and rocket-propelled grenades rattled for hours through the two neighborhoods--one Sunni Muslim comprised mainly of government supporters, and the other Alawite, a small offshoot of Shiite Islam, allied with Syria and the Lebanese opposition.

Security officials described the fighting and casualties on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media.

The same neighborhoods say fighting last month in which nine people were killed and 44 wounded before government forces deployed.

The renewed fighting comes as Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora is struggling to form a national unity government in which his top rival Hezbollah will have veto power in all government decisions.

The Hezbollah-led opposition won the concession in May as part of an Arab-brokered deal that followed an outburst of Lebanon's worst violence since the 1975-90 civil war.

In that violence, more than 80 people died nationwide and over 200 were wounded after Hezbollah militants and their allies overran streets in the capital Beirut and clashed with government supporters.

The May agreement aims to end the political stalemate between the government and the oppoision that has stoked sectarian violence and has threatened to plunge Lebanon into a new civil war.

Tension has been rising between rival neighborhoods in Tripoli, 50 miles north of Beirut, despite a constant army and police presence since a local truce took hold on June 23. About 20 houses were torched last month in apparent acts of revenge.