Crowds gathered in Beirut today for the funeral of an anti-Syrian MP whose assassination has deepened Lebanon’s worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Antoine Ghanem, 64, who represented the right-wing Christian Phalange party, and six others died in a car bomb attack on Wednesday.

On a day of national mourning, people assembled in the streets of east Beirut before the funeral at the Sacre Coeur church in the Badaro district and hundreds of supporters waved white and green Phalange flags outside a party office.

The killing, which drew widespread international condemnation, has deepened fears that the deeply divided country may lurch into further political turmoil.

The timing of the assassination, the sixth anti-Syrian politician to be killed since a truck bomb killed former prime minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005, came just days before parliament meets to elect a new president.

With the death of Ghanem, the ruling alliance of Sunni, Christian and Druze factions now has only a slim majority, with 68 MPs in the 128-member assembly, over the opposition bloc that includes Hizbullah, which is backed by Syria and Iran.

Rival leaders last night reportedly discussed how to defuse a 10-month-old political crisis that has paralysed Lebanon’s institutions, but it was highly unlikely they could strike a deal in time for next week’s vote.

“Things have not collapsed but more time is needed to ease tension. A compromise is still possible, eventually,” said a senior opposition source.

The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, this week warned that the failure to elect a new president could lead to two governments and two presidents, “a very worrisome situation for the peace and security of not only Lebanon, but also peace and security in the region”.

The president, who is elected for a one-off six-year term, has limited powers. But the post, which is reserved for the country’s Maronite Christian minority, is seen - ostensibly - as a figure of unity.

The US-backed government led by the prime minister, Faoud Siniora, is looking to parliament to elect someone less pro-Syria than current president, Emile Lahoud. MPs allied to the prime minister appealed to the world to protect Lebanon from what they called a “new war” by Syria.

“The Syrian regime has taken the decision to bring down the Lebanese republic,” said a statement released by the anti-Syrian coalition after a meeting yesterday. “It has assigned its intelligence agencies to liquidate the lawmakers.”

Damascus has denied any involvement in Ghanem’s death or in the recent spate of assassinations.

“Of course, we condemn the Lebanese assassination,” Syria’s UN ambassador, Bashar Ja’afari, said yesterday.

Portuguese officials stressed yesterday that Robert Mugabe had not yet been invited to a summit of European and African leaders after Gordon Brown said he would boycott the meeting if the Zimbabwean leader attended.

The prime minister stepped up the pressure on Zimbabwe further yesterday by revealing that he was calling for an extension of EU sanctions against leading figures in the Zimbabwean regime, as well as providing extra humanitarian aid. Sanctions are currently directed against 130 members of the Zanu-PF regime, and include a travel ban.

Mr Brown said: “This is a tragedy that requires the whole of the world to speak up and also to act.” He said he would be asking the UN next week to step up humanitarian aid, adding that Britain would provide an extra 8m in aid.

Mr Brown stressed he was working with the South African president, Thabo Mbeki, to resolve the situation and devise economic reconstruction for the area.

The prime minister’s tougher line represents a change in tactics since it has often been the Foreign Office view that condemnation of Zimbabwe by the former colonial power could be seen as counterproductive.

Intense diplomacy yesterday within the EU was aimed at trying to answer the diplomatic problems thrown up by President Mugabe. Portugal is desperate to salvage the first EU-Africa summit for years but anxious to avoid a diplomatic fiasco, with Mr Mugabe possibly hijacking the meeting while Britain boycotts.

“No invitations have been issued,” said a Portuguese government official. “We still have time. It’s three months away. But this is a summit with Africa and the African side insists that all African countries be invited. We have to acknowledge that position though we haven’t yet addressed the issue of invitations.”

Mr Brown’s spokesman said yesterday: “The prime minister is saying that the assumption is that Robert Mugabe will attend, and on that basis he [Mr Brown] would not attend.”

If another member of the Mugabe regime represented Zimbabwe, the spokesman said: “That would be a different circumstance. The issue in relation to Robert Mugabe is that what we do not want to do is anything that diverts attention from the important issues that the EU Africa summit needs to address.”

The Lisbon summit on December 8-9 is central to Portugal’s six-month EU presidency. With its long history of empire and ties with Africa, Portugal is keen to revive relations between Europe and Africa, a policy backed strongly by Mr Brown.

While Zimbabwean officials insisted Mr Mugabe would travel to Lisbon, the Portuguese were supported by the European development commissioner, Louis Michel of Belgium, who accepted that Mr Mugabe’s participation was likely. “We have tried, believe me, to find a solution. So has South Africa. To date no solution has been found, so we have to go forward with a common strategy.”

The summit was too important to be taken hostage by an “individual case”.

British officials agreed there was intense effort to resolve the problem and said that Downing Street had nothing against Zimbabwe being represented at the summit but that it could not be by Mr Mugabe.

The prime minister’s spokesmen stressed that Mr Brown had consulted his European colleagues before issuing his boycott threat. They pointed out that last year when European and Asian heads of state or government met in Helsinki, Burma was represented by its foreign minister, not the country’s junta chief.

Seeds to plant corn for ethanol and herbicides are in strong demand, giving a healthy boost to Monsanto Company’s («www.businessweek.com») sales and profits. When the Kansas City (Mo.) company raised its profit outlook for this year on Sept. 17, its shares perked up to a new 52-week high.

Monsanto said it now sees 2007 ongoing earnings per share of $2.00, vs. a previous estimate of $1.75-$1.80. Analysts were forecasting EPS of $1.83 for the year, according to Thomson Financial. Net earnings per share for 2007 should come in around $1.79 (including one-time items), up from $1.25 in 2006.

The supplier of bioengineered seeds and other agricultural products cited strong sales of corn seeds in Brazil and Argentina that were stronger than originally anticipated and higher pricing for its Roundup herbicides. The company also noted its full-year effective tax rate of 30% (from the resolution of several tax audits and the companys ability to use net-operating loss carry forwards in Argentina) will help earnings.

“By all measures, Monsanto has achieved extraordinary performance across our business in what was an extraordinary year for agriculture,” said Hugh Grant, Monsanto chairman, president and CEO, in a release. “Our performance this year serves as a springboard for our future success, setting us up for expanded growth opportunities not just for 2008, but through the turn of the decade.”

Monsanto shares rose nearly 3% to $75.56, after touching a new 52-week high of $76.98 during trading on Sept. 17. The stock has already shot up 45% this year.

“Todays announcement accentuates the strength of Monsantos global portfolio, as farmers in Latin America, supported by the higher global corn prices, are preparing to increase corn plantings,” wrote Goldman Sachs analyst Robert Koort in a note on Sept. 17. He noted that “a bonus” is the higher prices in its Roundup business.

“Monsanto is the undisputed leader in the ag biotech space, and we believe that the product pipeline is sufficiently robust to keep investors excited about the mid-to-long-term opportunity with market-share wins, additional biotech trait penetration (trait intensity), and starting in 2008 higher trait prices” for Roundup Ready and Roundup Weed, Koort wrote. He has a buy recommendation on the shares (Goldman Sachs has received compensation for investment banking services in the past 12 months).

Goldman’s Koort said the one “pushback” by investors is the stock’s rich valuation. However, given that Monsanto has raised its outlook numerous times, “what appeared to be lofty valuations turned out to be substantially more modest.”

The rosy profit outlook follows Friday’s announcement that Monsanto signed a licensing agreement with Dow Chemical («www.businessweek.com») that involves introducing a product called SmartStax, which is corn seed stacked with eight different genetic traits to help farmers fight weeds and insects, by 2010.