LEBANESE WAR PROTESTED AT RALLY HERE

A delegation of Lebanese leaders met with President Bush yesterday and more than 4,000 Lebanese and Lebanese Americans held a peaceful protest in Lafayette Park in hopes of getting the United States to intervene with Syria to stop its shelling of Beirut and withdraw troops from Lebanon.

The Lebanese delegation, led by Lebanese Ambassador Abdullah Bouhabib and the Maronite archbishop in the United States, Francis Zayek, met with Bush for a half hour and received assurances of his personal interest in helping to bring about an end to the current crisis, according to Lebanese sources.

The president said he will wait for the results of an Arab League peace mission before making any decisions.

Bouhabib said later that Bush showed "a lot of understanding on Lebanon and a willingness to help."

In Lafayette Park, demonstrators carried red and white flags, chanted "Syria Out of Lebanon" and "President Bush, Save Lebanon" and talked about the danger to relatives and friends because of the shelling there. Before the rally, more than 700 protesters marched through the downtown area and gathered outside The Washington Post, denouncing Syria and urging greater media coverage of the situation in Lebanon. U.S. Park Police estimated the crowd in Lafayette Park at more than 4,000.

Robert Y. Farah, executive director of the Lebanese Information and Research Center, representing the Lebanese resistance, said the protest was organized by a variety of Lebanese American groups.

"The intent was to make the public aware of the plight of Lebanon -- to get across through the media and to the administration that the American Lebanese from Maine to California are really angry about the intensity of the shelling . . . and the slow action of the U.S. administration."

Farah, who also participated in the meeting with Bush, said the president expressed concern about the shelling of Lebanon and "the suffering of the Lebanese."

A senior administration official reported that the State Department is now "actively exploring" possible actions the United States might take if the president decides to increase U.S. involvement in a search for a solution to the crisis.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.