Jordan's King Abdullah said: "We strongly condemn this ugly crime. This is a cowardly act that targets the security and stability of Lebanon.

"The Lebanese have to unify their ranks at this phase and not allow the preachers of death, disunity and destruction to succeed in creating a split in the cohesion of the Lebanese people."

In London, Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, said: "The news from Lebanon is another example of the kind of region, the kind of neighbourhood we are living [in]. This is another support for what I tried to explain before: this is between moderates and extremists.

"The negative role of Syria in Lebanon is not something new or top secret and only a few weeks ago the international community succeeded in taking Syrian forces and Syria out of Lebanon. But clearly they are trying to be involved even now, but it's too early to say something more concrete."

British reaction

The British foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, said: "We condemn it. We are dismayed. There are enough problems in Lebanon already and we hope very much that whatever lies behind this, that it is a one off.

"This is the kind of step that can only increase tension in the region rather than lead to greater peace, and obviously from that point of view its something that we deplore it."

"All I would simply say is, whoever is behind it is absolutely against the interests of every single person in the region to have maintenance of tension to have an increase in tension. This is deeply damaging and cannot be of help and assistance to anyone."

Tony Blair, British prime minister, condemned the assassination and called for efforts to stabilise Lebanon's fragile democracy. He said the killing of Gemayel was "completely without any justification at all".

"We condemn this murder utterly. We need to do everything we can at this moment to protect democracy in Lebanon and the premiership of Prime Minister (Fouad) Siniora."