Lebanon presidential vote faces further delay

BEIRUT - Lebanon's presidential election faced further delay on Friday, despite rival leaders' agreement in principle to give the post to army chief Michel Suleiman.

Direct talks between the anti-Syrian ruling majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition, brokered by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner this week, have failed to clinch a deal on how to amend the constitution to allow Suleiman to take the job.

Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun, who has his own demands, has also yet to give his consent.

Parliament was due to meet for a vote at 1 p.m. (1100 GMT), but senior political sources said they expected the session to be put off for the seventh time since the first attempt on Sept. 25.

"Things are moving in the right direction but more time is needed," one source said, adding that there would be more contacts between the opposing camps during the day.

The presidency, reserved for a Maronite Christian under Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system, has been empty since pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud left office on Nov. 23.

The vote will go ahead only if the Western-backed majority and the opposition reach a prior agreement that would secure a two-thirds quorum for the electoral session.

Electing a president would help defuse a political crisis that has paralysed Lebanon for more than a year and led to its worst internal strife since the 1975-1990 civil war.


FRENCH ROLE

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who is also an opposition leader, and majority coalition leader Saad al-Hariri have met in the past few days in the presence of Kouchner, who has travelled to Lebanon seven times this year to tackle the political crisis.

They have discussed electing Suleiman, the shape of the next government and a new law for a parliamentary election in 2009.

Political sources said one obstacle was a demand by Aoun, Hezbollah's main Christian ally, that the next prime minister be a neutral figure, although his opposition colleagues were ready to accept a candidate chosen by the ruling majority.

Aoun wants his share of seats in the new cabinet to reflect the size of his parliamentary bloc -- the biggest of any Christian faction.

The rival camps remain at odds over exactly how to amend the constitution, which bans senior public servants from running for office, to allow Suleiman to be elected.

Berri wants the amendment to bypass Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, while Hariri insists any move should go through his government. The opposition says Siniora's cabinet is not legitimate since all Shi'ite Muslim ministers left it last year.

Suleiman, 59, had been the consensus candidate favoured by the opposition. He has good ties with Hezbollah and was appointed army chief in 1998 when Syria controlled Lebanon.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday he had been in regular contact with Lebanese leaders and he urged them to demonstrate "statesmanship" by moving quickly to elect a president, even without a deal on cabinet posts and other issues.