BEIRUT (Reuters) - - Lebanon's political crisis deepened on Monday as a depleted cabinet approved draft U.N. statutes for a tribunal to try the killers of ex-premier Rafik al-Hariri despite the resignation of six pro-Syrian ministers.

Official sources said the Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora would now send the draft back to New York and wait for the final text on the special court to return.

The move coincided with a political storm that threatens to spill into street confrontations.


Environment Minister Yacoub Sarraf, loyal to Syrian-backed President Emile Lahoud, resigned shortly before the cabinet met. Five Shi'ite Muslim ministers from Hezbollah and its ally, the Amal movement, quit on Saturday over the collapse of talks on their demands for effective veto power in the government.

Nine of the cabinet's 24 members must resign for it to fall. A Sunni Muslim minister quit in February, though his resignation was not accepted, leaving 17 ministers in the cabinet.

Politicians and analysts said the crisis was likely to spill into street confrontations that could shatter stability and damage efforts to recover from a devastating war with Israel.

"It's hard to see how this situation will be resolved without there being some violence," Andrew Exum, research fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Reuters.

"The hope is that if there is a clash it will shock everyone back to the negotiating table before it gets out of hand."
The crisis dragged the country's stock market lower with the BLOM stock index ending the day 2.23 percent lower.

The anti-Syrian majority coalition has accused Hezbollah of implementing a Syrian-Iranian plan to overthrow the government and to foil efforts to set up the court to try Hariri's killers.

Sarraf, a Christian, said in a letter to Siniora that he was resigning "as I can't find myself part of any constitutional authority that lacks representation from a whole religious sect".


Siniora has rejected all the resignations but a senior source close to the ministers said they stood by their decision.

Lahoud opposed holding the cabinet session, saying that any such meeting after the resignations would be unconstitutional. Siniora said his government was still legitimate.

The United States has already accused Iran, Syria and Hezbollah of plotting to topple the government, which Washington holds up as an example of emerging democracy in the Middle East.

Hezbollah has denied trying to obstruct the Hariri tribunal, saying it had agreed to it but wanted to discuss the details.

Hezbollah said on Sunday it would stage peaceful street protests as part of a campaign to press its demands for better representation in government for its allies, especially Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun.
Anti-Syrian leaders have pledged counter-demonstrations should Hezbollah take to the streets, raising fears of violence at a time of rising tension between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims.

Many Lebanese blame Syria for the killing of Hariri, a Sunni, in a suicide truck bombing. Damascus denies involvement.

Hariri's 2005 assassination led to mass protests against Syria. Under international pressure, Syria ended its 29-year military presence in Lebanon in April last year and anti-Syrian politicians swept to victory in ensuing elections.

A U.N. commission investigating the assassination has implicated senior Lebanese and Syrian security officials.