WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush left the door open for Hezbollah to play a central political role in Lebanon, urging the Shiite movement to "prove" it does not deserve to be branded a terrorist group.  "We view Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, and I would hope that Hezbollah would prove that they're not, by laying down arms and not threatening peace" between Israel and the Palestinians, said Bush. The White House last week denied a media report that the United States was grudgingly moving into line with efforts by France and the United Nations  to get the group into the Lebanese political mainstream. But aides said privately that Washington faces a quandary how to deal with the group, noting that it wields considerable political clout in Lebanon ahead of May parliamentary elections there.

"PA" ,  A million demonstrators chanting

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Maronite Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, a strong critic of Syria's control in Lebanon who left Monday for a meeting with President Bush has emerged as a key opposition figure whose influence cuts across sectarian lines in this religiously diverse nation. The soft-spoken 84-year-old patriarch, head of the Maronite Catholic Church, began criticizing Syrian interference in Lebanese affairs when few dared challenge the authority of the pro-Syria government and its Syrian backers. His first major salvo came in September, months before Lebanon was thrust into the spotlight with the Feb. 14 assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri, a killing that has triggered mass street demonstrations demanding that Syria get out of Lebanon.

BEIRUT (AFP) - By car, bus and boat thousands of Lebanese poured into the capital for a huge demonstration called by an emboldened opposition determined to end Syria's near 30-year military presence in Lebanon. Hours before the mid-afternoon start to the rally, more than 1 million people, according to estimates by correspondents and photographers, were packed into Martyrs Square in central Beirut. Many waved the red, white and green Lebanese flag on a splendid, sun-splashed Mediterranean morning near the grave of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, assassinated in a bomb blast exactly one month ago and in whose memory the rally has been called.