BEIRUT (AFP) - Syrian intelligence agents remain in Lebanon despite assurances they have left, and more political murders can be expected, a key opposition figure said in a claim echoed by Washington.

"I believe the entire opposition is being targeted," said Druze leader Walid Jumblatt in a television interview late Thursday night, repeating an accusation he has often made since the murder in February of former premier Rafiq Hariri.

"The assassinations will continue with or without the knowledge of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad," he charged.

Jumblatt was speaking only a week after the latest political killing -- the death of prominent anti-Syrian journalist Samir Kassir.

Lebanon's pro-Syrian regime and its political masters in Damascus have denied widespread allegations that they were behind the two killings, as well as a series of bombings since Hariri's death that have killed three others.

But Washington voiced concern over what it said was a continued Syrian intelligence presence in Lebanon, charging that it was creating a climate of fear in the midst of parliamentary elections.

"We are deeply concerned about Syria's interference and intimidation inside Lebanon," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.

"Syria needs to comply fully with United Nations (Security) Council Resolution 1559 -- that means getting all their intelligence operatives out of Lebanon," McClellan said, referring to a US- and French-sponored text adopted last September.

KFAR MATTA, Lebanon (AFP) - Fifteen years after the end of Lebanon's civil war, residents of Kfar Matta -- the scene of bloody sectarian massacres -- are to vote on Sunday for tickets grouping long-time Druze and Christian foes.

"The alliance between Christian and Druze candidates is a good thing and a first step towards reconciliation," said Shaheen Ghareeb, a Druze resident of this mountain village outside Beirut.

Ghareeb said he would cast his ballot in the third round of Lebanon's parliamentary elections Sunday for a list headed by Druze chief Walid Jumblatt, who has forged an unlikely alliance with jailed Christian warlord Samir Geagea's Lebanese Forces despite their bloody history.

Geagea's militia slaughtered between 100 and 270 Druze civilians in Kfar Matta as clashes between the rival forces swept the region in 1983.

A year later, when Jumblatt and his Shiite allies moved in, Christians fled and their homes were taken over by Druze, who are members of a breakaway sect of Islam.

United Nations may send a verification team back to Lebanon following reports that Syrian intelligence may not have completely withdrawn from the country, Secretary General
Kofi Annan said.

"We are now receiving reports that there may be elements that are still there, and we are considering the possible return of the verification team to ascertain what is going on," Annan told reporters.

A UN verification mission to Lebanon had reported on May 23 that Syria had "fully" withdrawn troops from its neighbour, in compliance with UN resolution 1559 steered through the Security Council in September by France and the United States.

The mission also said it had found no remaining trace of the Syrian intelligence services, but added that the clandestine nature of such agencies made it difficult to establish their complete withdrawal.

Beirut