Lebanon's president Michel Suleiman welcomes Pope Benedict XVI at Beirut airport (Reuters)

One person was killed and several wounded as protests against the US and the anti-Islam movie Innocence of Muslims were mixed in with antipathy towards the Pope as he arrived for an official visit in Lebanon.

As Benedict XVI landed in Beirut for a three-day tour of the country protesters set fire to a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant and a Hardees diner in northern Tripoli. The attacks were part of a burgeoning assault on Western icons as Islamic anger grows in the Middle East and North Africa over the film.

''Muslims raise your hands - we don't want the Pope,'' demonstrators chanted as they set fire to the building and ripped down posters that welcomed the papal visit.

Lebanese security forces opened fore on demonstrators as they threw stones and tried to storm a government building.

A number of injuries were reported, including 12 members security personnel.

"I came in Lebanon as a peace pilgrim, as a friend of God and men,"  Benedict XVI's said in his opening speech.

It was his fourth trip to the Middle East and previous visits have been much less contentious.

Even the militant movement Hezbollah had put up posters at Beirut airport for the latest visit that said: "Hezbollah welcomes the Pope in the homeland of coexistence."

Hardees and a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants on fire in Tripoli, northern Lebanon (Reuters)

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