This climbdown is a major retreat, not only for the government but the US agenda in Lebanon," Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, a political analyst and expert on Hezbollah, told AFP.

"It empowers the opposition... and basically shows that force is the only way of dealing with the government."Osama Safa, head of the Lebanese Centre for Policy Studies, said the climbdown set a "dangerous precedent," adding: "This means that in the future the opposition could resort to the same violence or threaten to do so.

"The government has been weakened to irrelevance by actions on the street," he added. "It is fast becoming lame duck."