BEIRUT (AFP) – The Lebanese opposition stepped up its demands for an end to Syria’s political and military domination as the beleaguered pro-Damascus president struggled to find a new prime minister.  The opposition movement, riding on a wave of massive popular protests that led to the dramatic fall of the Syrian-backed government two days ago, was to meet later Wednesday to plan its next political moves. As the political crisis triggered by the assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri last month deepened, the United States intensified its pressure on Lebanon’s political masters in Syria.

The fall of the government of Prime Minister Omar Karameh, hailed as a rare triumph of “people power” in the Middle East, has also added to the woes of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Assad, under fire not only over Lebanon but also a deadly attack in Israel blamed on Palestinian militants in Damascus, has sought to ease tensions by pledging a troop withdrawal from its tiny neighbour.

President Emile Lahoud, a Damascus protege, has yet to call for consultations with MPs to find a candidate for the premiership as required under the constitution and is himself facing calls to stand down.

The opposition, which blamed the Karameh government and its backers in Syria for the massive bomb blast that killed Hariri and 18 other people, is meeting later Wednesday to decide whether to take part in the consultations.

“I prefer that (Lahoud) leaves and that we get rid of this bad regime and start a new page in Lebanese-Syrian and internal Lebanese relations,” prominent opposition leader and Druze MP Walid Jumblatt said.

“Do we engage in consultations with this president…or do we say no to consultations, at this point I cannot say,” he told Al-Jazeera satellite television station.

The opposition has called for the formation of a “neutral” interim cabinet — without regime loyalists or opposition figures — to oversee at least a partial Syrian pullout ahead of elections due by the end of May.

Ghattas Khoury, an MP from the Hariri parliamentary bloc, said “we will not take part in or give our confidence to any government before the resignation or the sacking of the heads of security services.”

“As for the participation in the consultations, we will take a final decision when we meet with our colleagues from the opposition this afternoon,” he told AFP.

Karameh’s resignation came amid a massive protest on Martyrs’ Square in Beirut where protestors have been camping out in a sea of red and white Lebanese flags almost every day since Hariri was killed.

The United States, which ratcheted up the pressure on Damascus following the Hariri killing, lauded Karameh’s resignation as the fruit of a “Cedar Revolution” against Syria’s political and military dominance.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news – web sites) joined French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier in calling Tuesday for an immediate pullout of Syria’s 14,000 troops from Lebanon.

Rice also branded Syria a barrier to democratic change in the Middle East and linked it to last week’s suicide bombing in Israel that killed five Israelis and cast a shadow over Middle East peace efforts.

“There is evidence that Islamic Jihad, headquartered in Syria, was in fact involved with the planning of those attacks in Tel Aviv,” she told US television. “And so the Syrians have a lot to answer for.”

Syria has denied any connection with the nightclub bombing and insists that Islamic Jihad’s office in Damascus has closed. Rice said the United States did not know to what extent the Syrians themselves were involved.

Lahoud told a visiting UN team of experts helping the probe into Hariri’s assassination that Lebanese authorities were determined to cooperate with the world body and to carry out the inquiry “until the end.”

Sixteen days after the attack, the body of a 19th victim from the bombing was recovered from the site of the blast by civil defense workers who struggled to keep out angry relatives complaining of negligence.