A bomb exploded in a Christian port town north of Beirut today, killing one Sri Lankan woman, wounding seven people and damaging shops and houses, a security source said.
The explosion, the fifth to target the country's Christian heartland in two months, came on the eve of the return of anti-Syrian opposition leader Michel Aoun to Lebanon from 15 years of exile.
The source said the bomb was placed inside an old abandoned house in the port city of Jounieh, causing a small fire and shattering windows of nearby buildings.
The blast in an old commercial area was also near a church, a radio station and about 150 metres (yards) from a new electoral office for Aoun supporters.
President Emile Lahoud, a Syrian ally, strongly condemned the blast. A statement from his office quoted him as describing the explosion as "a desperate attempt to restore the climate of terror and fear among the Lebanese".
"I was standing outside my shop and I felt a huge amount of pressure and I found myself lying on the floor inside. All I saw was smoke," Joseph Barsomian, who owns a sports gear shop, he said.
Firefighters put out the fire as ambulances rushed casualties to a nearby hospital. Security forces cordoned off the area and investigators began searching the site.
Four bombs had killed three people and wounded around 40 in Christian areas since the February 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, which plunged the country into its worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Lebanese elections are set for May 29 and, in a significant move since Syria ended its 29-year military presence, a court this week suspended an arrest warrant for Maronite Christian Aoun, paving the way for his return on Saturday.
The blast shattered windows at the new Aoun electoral office, but one of his supporters denied they might be the target.
"They just want to create choas among the Lebanese," Toufic Saloum said at the office. "We will not allow these acts to overshadow our move towards freedom, sovereignty and independence."
Syria withdrew its forces from Lebanon last month under pressure from the international community and large anti-Syrian protests sparked by Hariri's killing, which many Lebanese blame on Damascus.