BEIRUT : Lebanon's Hezbollah-led opposition on Saturday said it was ending its takeover of west Beirut after the army revoked government moves against the Shiite group that sparked deadly fighting.

"The opposition welcomes the army's decision and will proceed with the withdrawal of all its armed elements so that control of the capital is handed over to the military," opposition MP Ali Hassan Khalil of Hezbollah ally Amal said.

His comments came shortly after the army said it was overturning a government decision to reassign the head of airport security and to probe a communications network set up by Hezbollah.

Khalil said, however, that the opposition would maintain a civil disobedience campaign against the Western-backed government.

The army also called for all armed militants to withdraw from the streets as the death toll from the violence rose to more than 30 amid renewed clashes across the country.

"The army command calls on all parties to (help restore calm) by ending armed protests and withdrawing gunmen from the streets and opening the roads," the military said in a statement.

It said that the head of airport security, who had been reassigned from his job, would remain in his post pending an investigation and that the army itself would look into the communications network set up by the militant group.

"Brigadier General Wafiq Shqeir will remain in his post until appropriate procedural measures have been taken after a probe," the statement said.

"As for the telecommunications network, the army will look into the issue in a manner that is not harmful to the public interest or the security of the resistance" against Israel, it said.

The military said it had taken these decisions in the light of a government wish that it rule on these matters.

The army statement came shortly after Prime Minister Fuad Siniora made a televised address to the nation in which he accused Hezbollah of staging an armed coup and also urged the military to restore order.

The latest violence to shake Lebanon has pitted mainly Sunni supporters of the Western-backed ruling bloc against Shiite militants from the opposition and effectively shut down the country's only international airport.

In his first reaction to Hezbollah's takeover of west Beirut, Siniora decried what he called a "poisonous sting" to democracy and vowed that Lebanon would not succumb.

He said Hezbollah's weapons could no longer be considered to be legitimately held because they had been turned on Lebanese.

"We believed them when they said they would not turn their weapons internally," he said. "But Hezbollah must know that the power of weapons will not terrorise us."

Sixteen people were killed in new violence on Saturday, two of them at a funeral procession for an earlier victim of the sectarian fighting.

Fourteen were also killed in north Lebanon in clashes between rival supporters, a security official told AFP.

An uneasy calm had settled over most of west Beirut earlier as people ventured out in the affected areas and cleaning crews swept away the debris.

Few armed elements could be seen on the streets and the army was out in force manning roadblocks. But the main road to the airport remained blocked for a fourth straight day and there were no scheduled incoming or outgoing flights.

Foreigners continued to leave the country by road to Syria, with Turkey and Kuwait evacuating their citizens.

The unrest led to urgent international appeals for calm as Arab foreign ministers prepared to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis on Sunday amid fears among Sunni governments of an increase in the influence in Lebanon of Shiite Iran.

Washington has blasted the power grab by Hezbollah and pointed the finger at Iran and Syria for the unrest, saying they must be held to account.

"The United States is consulting with other governments in the region and with the UN Security Council about measures that must be taken to hold those responsible for the violence in Beirut accountable," the White House said.

Lebanon's long-running political standoff, which first erupted in November 2006 when six pro-Syrian ministers quit the cabinet, has left it without a president since November, when Damascus protege Emile Lahoud stepped down at the end of his term.

The crippling political divide is widely seen as an extension of the confrontation pitting the United States and its Arab allies against Syria and Iran.

- AFP /ls