PARIS, May 9, 2008 (AFP) - A Lebanese government minister on Friday called on France to put pressure on Iran and Syria to stop Lebanon becoming another fundamentalist regime.
    "If there is no real pressure on Iran and Syria," Lebanon risks becoming "Tehran on the Mediterranean," a "new Gaza," a totalitarian regime, telecommunications minister Marwan Hamade told France 24 news channel.
    Hamade called on French President Nicolas Sarkozy to pressure the two countries, which Hamade said control the militias currently fighting on the streets of Beirut, to rein in their proxies.
    He made the appeal as Hezbollah fighters seized control of rival pro-government strongholds in Beirut and gunbattles rocked the Lebanese capital for a third day, propelling the nation dangerously close to all-out civil war.