BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) – A lawmaker who defied Syria and voted against extending President Emile Lahoud’s term survived an assassination attempt Friday when a parked, explosives-rigged vehicle blew up in Beirut.

Marwan Hamadeh was wounded in the face in the attack, which killed his driver and injured a body guard. The 65-year-old lawmaker’s brother called the attack an attempt to destabilize Lebanon, where a bloody 15-year civil war ended in 1990.

Hamadeh, a former economy minister, belongs to a bloc of parliamentarians led by Druse leader Walid Jumblatt. Jumblatt withdrew Hamadeh from Premier Rafik Hariri’s Cabinet last month to protest the extension of Lahoud’s presidential term.

Hamadeh, speaking from his hospital bed Friday, urged calm. “I call on everyone to remain calm and have the wisdom” to safeguard stability in the country, he said in comments aired on television.

His brother, Ali Hamadeh, a political analyst with Lebanon’s An-Nahar newspaper, denounced the attack. “It is a political message to those who are trying to open bridges among the Lebanese and break down walls among the Lebanese,” he told The Associated Press.

He was apparently referring to Jumblatt’s efforts to align himself with Christian opposition groups who have rejected the extension of Lahoud’s term, which was backed by Syria.

Jumblatt’s decision to withdraw his ministers from the Cabinet has soured his relations with Damascus, the main power broker in Lebanon, where it maintains thousands of troops. Still, Syria expressed shock at the attack and Vice President Abdul-Halim Khaddam rushed to Beirut to visit Hamadeh in the hospital.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said the United States “strongly condemns the bombing” and wished Hamadeh a speedy recovery.

French President Jacques Chirac condemned the “terrorist act.” U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan expressed his “serious concern” and reiterated his “abhorrence of such violent acts.”

The bombing occurred on a side street about 100 yards from Beirut’s seafront corniche moments after Hamadeh left his home. The American Community School and the International College, both U.S. organizations, are in the area.

Salwa Assaf, 70, said the explosion threw her brother, Afif, who was having breakfast, to the floor of her nearby home.

“During 15 years of war, I did not hear anything like that,” she said. “I went out and saw a wall of fire.”

Assaf’s relatives, Solandia and Raja Assaf, were pulling into the parking lot near their relatives’ house when the bomb exploded.

“We felt the car shaking. We saw a shower of glass shards fall to the ground,” Raja Assaf said.

Security officials said a 35-pound bomb exploded in a parked vehicle as Hamadeh’s car drove by.

Forensic experts sifted through charred cars and other wreckage in a street littered with broken glass.

A statement issued by the American University Hospital said Hamadeh underwent four hours of reconstructive surgery to his face and nose. “His situation is stable,” it said, adding that the wounded bodyguard was discharged after being treated for burns and bruises.

After visiting Hamadeh, Jumblatt said the bombing targeted “national peace and internal stability in Lebanon.”

Lahoud and Hariri condemned the attack, as did the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah militant group. Lahoud ordered an investigation.

Car bombings were a hallmark of Lebanon’s civil war, which killed more than 150,000 people. But such attacks have been rare since the end of the conflict.

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Associated Press Writer Hussein Dakroub contributed to this report.

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