BEIRUT – Former Lebanese minister Bassel Fleihan died on Monday in a French hospital from wounds sustained in the February blast that killed ex-premier Rafiq Hariri in Beirut, the Hariri TV television station said. Fleihan, 42, died in a military hospital near Paris where he had been taken with serious burns immediately after the February 14 bombing in Beirut, the television reported before interrupting programs to play classical music.His death brings the toll from the blast to 20, including Hariri.A tent had been set up on Beirut

Vigils and prayers have been repeatedly held for him at the site of the explosion and on Martyrs’ Square where Hariri is buried.

Fleihan, who had an MA from Yale university and a Ph.D in economics from Columbia in the United States, worked for the World Bank and the UN Development Programme before starting his political carreer in 2000 when he became an MP.

Fleihan is survived by his wife Yasma and two young children.