BEIRUT, Lebanon - Nearly 500,000 pro-Syrian protesters waved flags and chanted anti-American slogans in a central Beirut square Tuesday, answering a nationwide call by the militant Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group for a demonstration to counter weeks of massive rallies demanding Syrian forces leave Lebanon.
Organizers handed out Lebanese flags and directed the men and women to separate sections of Riad Solh Square. Loudspeakers blared militant songs urging resistance to foreign interference. Demonstrators held up pictures of Syrian President Bashar Assad and signs saying, "Syria & Lebanon brothers forever."
Other placards read: "America is the source of terrorism"; "All our disasters are from America"; "No to American-Zionist intervention, Yes to Lebanese-Syrian brotherhood."
Black-clad Hezbollah guards handled security, lining the perimeter of the square and taking position on rooftops. Trained dogs sniffed for bombs.
Large cranes hoisted two giant red-and-white flags bearing Lebanon's cedar tree. On one, the words, "Thank you Syria," were written in English; on the other, "No to foreign interference."
Participants stressed that the foreign influence they referred to was from the United States, France and other countries, not Syria, which they welcomed.
The demonstration was in front of U.N. offices. Hezbollah opposes the U.N. resolution drafted by the United States and France last year calling for Syria to withdraw its 14,000 troops from Lebanon.
The demonstration came a day after Syrian and Lebanese leaders announced that Syrian forces would transfer to eastern Lebanon before the nations discuss a full withdrawal.
Most of the Syrian troops were still in position Tuesday, with AP reporters in the mountains overlooking Beirut seeing only scattered movement of military trucks heading toward the Bekaa Valley.
Riad Solh Square in Beirut is just a few blocks from another downtown square where opposition protesters have been rallying for days, demanding that Syria withdraw its troops.
Tuesday's rally was far bigger than the more than 70,000 anti-Syrian protesters who filled nearby Martyrs' Square on Monday. That was the biggest rally yet of anti-Syrian furor, as demonstrators waved Lebanon's cedar-tree flag and thundered, "Syria out!"
At least one opposition leader said the pro-Syrian government pressured people to turn out Tuesday and some reports said Syria bused in people from across the border.
Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim group, has been mobilizing its followers from across the country for the protest, also meant to denounce the U.N. resolution that also called for dismantling militias - a point Hezbollah sees as aimed at its well-armed military wing.
Hezbollah is widely admired both within Lebanon and across the Arab world for driving Israeli forces out of the country's south. It also has the organizational capability and party discipline to mobilize massive street protests, drawing its strength from the Shiite Muslim community, Lebanon's largest religious sect with 1.2 million people.
Opposition leaders, who have been courting Hezbollah's support to oust Syrian troops, accused Lebanese intelligence agents of exercising pressure on municipalities, public schools and institutions to drive up the number of demonstrators.
Hezbollah officials denied the charges, saying it is part of a campaign to make the demonstration seem "imposed and involuntary."
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