BEIRUT, Lebanon - Screaming and weeping Lebanese clambered around an ambulance carrying the body of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri as hundreds of thousands of people turned for his funeral today, two days after a huge bomb killed the man credited for rebuilding post-civil war Lebanon.

Suspicions over Syrian involvement in Hariri's assassination further charged the atmosphere, with his family and supporters warning officials of the pro-Syrian Lebanese government to stay away.

Internationally, pressure mounted to find his killers, with Washington recalling its ambassador to Syria and the U.N. Security Council demanding Lebanon catch bring those responsible for Hariri's slaying.

The funeral, policed by a huge security operation, started at Hariri's palatial Koreitem compound, then wound nearly two miles to his eventual burial place at the towering Mohammed al-Amin mosque, construction of which he funded.

Grieving relatives carried Hariri's coffin, draped in a red, white and green Lebanese flag, into the ambulance.

Coffins of at least five of his bodyguards also killed in Monday's huge bomb blast that assassinated the billionaire businessman were also part of the procession.

With sirens wailing, the ambulances carrying the caskets were followed on foot by Hariri's three sons - Baha, Saadeddine and Ayman - who led a sea of at least 100,000 mourners waving flags and banners and holding portraits of the billionaire tycoon.

Hariri was Lebanon's prime minister for 10 of the 14 years following the end of the bloody 1975-90 civil war and was credited by many with rebuilding the war-ravaged country. At least 100,000 more people crammed around the mosque awaiting the procession.

Breaking with Islamic tradition, hundreds of weeping women waving white handkerchiefs joined men in the march. This and the participation of Sunni Muslim clerics, white turban-wearing Druse religious leaders and ordinary Lebanese Shiites and Christians demonstrated Hariri's great popularity and ability to reach across potentially volatile sectarian divides.

Near Beirut's Mohammed al-Amin Mosque, a large Hariri portrait was placed on the Martyrs monument in the city square, once a killing field during the 1975-90 civil war.

The procession turned into a spontaneous anti-Syrian demonstration, with visibly enraged mourners shouting insults at Syrian President Bashar Assad and demanding him to "remove your dogs from Beirut," a reference to Syrian intelligence agents, part of an overall contingent of 15,000 troops deployed in the country since 1976.

Many in Lebanon blame Syria for carrying out - or at least having a hand -in Hariri's killing. Syria denies the charge and has instead condemned the assassination.

Hariri resigned last year amid opposition to a Syrian-backed constitutional amendment that enabled his rival, the pro-Damascus Emile Lahoud, to extend his term as Lebanon's president.