Three people, including Tueni, were killed in the explosion that went off at approximately 9 am in Mkalles, media reports said. They said the blast went off as his motorcade drove through the area.

Around 30 people were wounded in the bombing which also started a large fire. At least 10 cars were destroyed, some tossed into a valley in the hilly area, the Associated Press reported.

"This is a new terrorism message," Jumblat said of the killing, which follows a series of subsequent bombings that have targeted mainly anti-Syrian officials in the past year.

At the scene Tueni's wife was in tears and refused to answer when asked by a reporter whether her husband was hurt.

Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh, who is also Gebran's uncle, threatened to resign if the cabinet did not meet by Monday evening "to demand an inquiry under the supervision of the Security Council on all the crimes committed by Syria."

Hamadeh was also targeted on October 1, 2004 in a failed assassination attempt.

Speaker Berri described him as a "voice that shouted in the wilderness of a nation against oppression."

An outspoken critic of Syria's role in Lebanon, Tueni had just returned from France where he had been living for fear of assassination. His columns in An-Nahar often raised the ire of the Syrians.

After ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination, Tueni played a prominent role in the leadership of the mass demonstrations that, combined with international pressure, succeeded in forcing Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in April, ending a 29-year hegemony. He was elected to parliament for the first time in the last elections in June.

Tueni's grandfather, Gebran Tueni, founded An-Nahar. His father Ghassan Tueni is considered the dean of the Lebanese press, having turned the newspaper into one of the leading media institutions in the Arab world.

In his final days, Tueni was campaigning for an international probe into recently discovered mass graves near the Defense Ministry in Yarze and Anjar which he blamed on the Syrians.

In his last editorial published Dec. 8, Tueni accused Syria of committing "crimes against humanity" in Lebanon. He charged the Syrian leadership with "trying to turn the clock back" and to intimidate the Lebanese.

He is survived by his wife, Siham Asseily and his four daughters Nayla, Michelle, from a previous marriage, and twin infants Gabriella and Nadia.

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