BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's pro-Syrian opposition prepared on Tuesday to bury an anti-government demonstrator killed in a shooting that has heightened sectarian tensions and intensified media fury on both sides of the political divide.

Television stations loyal to the opposition Hezbollah and Sunni political leader Saad al-Hariri carried statements blaming each other for fuelling sectarian hostility in a country that has been wracked by two civil wars in the past half century.

"Television war threatens to ignite the fire of strife," Al-Balad newspaper said in its front-page headline.

The Hezbollah-led opposition took to the streets on Friday to force the resignation of the pro-Western Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, demanding formation of a national unity government and accusing the government of failing to stand by Hezbollah during an Israeli offensive in July and August.

Veteran Druze leader Walid Jumblatt called on government allies to remain patient and not take to the streets.

"We don't want party marches. We only want ... to stand in solidarity with the government of Fouad Siniora," he said. He accused Syria of using the opposition to exert its influence.

The Hezbollah-led opposition blames the government for the death of the Shi'ite Muslim, shot in a Sunni neighbourhood while returning from a protest.

Siniora has condemned the killing and one of his allies urged their supporters on Tuesday to show self-restraint.

Anti-government protesters have set up camp in the city centre, pitching scores of canvas tents in two main squares, paralysing the heart of the capital.

The coffin of the slain Shi'ite, 21-year-old Ahmed Mahmoud, was brought to the camp late Monday, draped in a Lebanese flag. Protesters read Koranic verses over the casket, which was later taken away ahead of Tuesday's burial in a Beirut suburb.

"Martyred by the militias of the authorities," one banner read, as thousands of demonstrators gathered for a fifth day of protests.

Hezbollah accuses Siniora's administration of failing to support it during its July-August war against Israel and has called for the creation of a new cabinet that will effectively give it the power to veto government policy.

CIVIL WAR FEARS

Government allies accuse the opposition of trying to derail an international tribunal into the 2005 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which many Lebanese blame on Syria -- a charge Damascus denies.

The Lebanese army has deployed heavily around Beirut. Soldiers in armoured vehicles guard major road junctions and coils of razor wire block off streets leading to the government headquarters, where Siniora and his ministers are holed up.

Lebanon is the most religiously and politically divided country in the Middle East, and the battle for control of the government will determine whether Lebanon shifts towards Iran and Syria or towards the United States and Europe.

Underlining international concerns, the leaders of France and Germany urged Syria on Tuesday not to interfere in Lebanon but to contribute constructively to efforts aimed at bringing peace and stability to its neighbour.

The struggle pits two broad alliances, with the ruling coalition, made up of Sunni Muslim, Druze and some Christian parties confronting Hezbollah, another Shi'ite group and a populist Christian party headed by former general Michel Aoun.

Many politicians and observers have said the political tussle could ignite yet another civil war.

"The worst thing about the current crisis is there is no Arab or international mediator who can intervene ... after the potential mediators abandoned their roles and took sides," wrote commentator Sateh Noureddin in As-Safir newspaper.

Less than two weeks ago tens of thousands of government supporters flooded Beirut for the funeral of assassinated Christian politician Pierre Gemayel -- the sixth anti-Syrian figure to be murdered in the past two years.