Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah took control of large areas of Beirut on Friday, tightening its grip on the city in a major confrontation with the US-backed government.

Saudi Arabia called for an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers over the crisis, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television reported.

Security sources said at least 10 people had been killed and 20 wounded in three days of battles between pro-government gunmen and fighters loyal to Hezbollah, a Shi'ite political movement with a powerful guerrilla army.

The fighting, the worst internal strife since the 1975-90 civil war, was triggered this week after the government took decisions targeting Hezbollah's military communications network. The group said the government had declared war.

In scenes reminiscent of the darkest days of the civil war, young men armed with assault rifles roamed the streets amid smashed cars and smouldering buildings.

The sound of exploding grenades and automatic gunfire echoed across a city still rebuilding from its last civil war.

Hezbollah gunmen took control of media outlets owned by governing coalition leader Saad Al-Hariri, Lebanon's strongest Sunni politician and an ally of Saudi Arabia.

Hariri's television and radio stations went off the air. Hezbollah, a Shi'ite group also backed by Syria, has been steadily seizing offices of pro-government factions in the predominantly Muslim western half of the city.

Backed by the Shi'ite Amal group, Hezbollah fighters have been handing control of the offices to the army - which is trying to play a neutral role in the crisis.

The dead included a woman and her 30-year-old son, who were killed when trying to flee Ras al-Nabae - a mixed Sunni-Shi'ite Beirut district and scene of some of the heaviest clashes.

"They were trying to flee to the mountains. Instead of reaching the mountains, they reached the hospital, dead," said a relative of the victims, who declined to give her name because of security fears. "It's my worst nightmare."

Hezbollah also kept its grip on roads leading to Beirut's international airport, which has been mostly paralysed since Wednesday. National carrier Middle East Airlines said all of its flights would be postponed until Saturday.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Thursday the government had declared of war by declaring the communications network illegal. The fighting intensified after he finished speaking.

"It certainly leaves the government weaker and the Future movement weaker," said Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. "Hezbollah is dominating most of west Beirut."

But the group did not want to be seen as "occupiers of Beirut" by keeping its fighters areas whose residents' political loyalties lie with Hariri or his allies, he said. Handing control to the army appeared the most likely exit.

Hezbollah on Thursday rejected a proposal by Hariri to end the crisis. Nasrallah said the government must rescind its decisions and attend talks aimed at ending the political crisis.

The UN Security Council called for "calm and restraint", urging all sides to return to peaceful dialogue. The White House urged Hezbollah to stop "disruptive" acts and France, another firm backer of Hariri, called for a peaceful resolution.

Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria, has led a 17-month-long political campaign against Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's anti-Syrian cabinet.

The group was the only Lebanese faction allowed to keep its weapons after the civil war to fight Israeli forces occupying the south. Israel withdrew in 2000 and the fate of Hezbollah's weapons is at the heart of the political crisis.-Reuters