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Lebanon again puts off electing president - now set for February 11

Other News Materials 20 January 2008 16:20 (UTC +04:00)

( dpa ) - Lebanon's Shiite House Speaker Nabih Berri Sunday announced a further postponement of a parliamentary session to elect a president for the country, setting February 11 as a new date.

The 13th such postponement came shortly after Arab League Secretery General Amr Mussa said there had been "difficulties, and that the doors are closed for now - but we will try to open them."

A short statement from the Speaker's office said the latest planned parliamentary session set for Monday had been postponed until February 11 "as no agreement has been reached between the Lebanese."

Mussa held renewed talks on Sunday with feuding political leaders in another bid to reach an agreement between rival politicians.

Mussa, who returned late Saturday after talks in Syria, has been trying to win support for an Arab League plan to end the crisis which has left Lebanon without a president since November 24.

The three-point Arab initiative calls for the election of army chief General Michel Suleiman as president, the formation of a national unity government in which no one party has veto power, and the adoption of a new electoral law.

The Western-backed ruling majority has accepted the bid, but the Hezbollah-led opposition, backed by Syria and Iran, demands that it be granted a third of the seats in a new government so the opposition can have veto power.

Mussa met Western-backed Prime Minister Fouad Seniora as well as Berri. Berri was quoted as saying on Saturday that the Arab League must clarify its initiative.

On Thursday, Mussa managed to host a rare meeting in Beirut of feuding Lebanese political leaders - the head of the ruling majority Saad Hariri and Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun - before he went to Damascus where he met on Saturday with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

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