Sulaiman 'set for presidency next week'

Beirut/Washington: A leading member of Lebanon's anti-Syrian governing coalition said on Saturday he saw nothing to stop the army chief becoming head of state and hoped a presidential election would go ahead next week.

Christian leader Samir Geagea said General Michel Sulaiman enjoyed the support of both his Western-backed governing alliance and the opposition led by Hezbollah and backed by Syria.

A parliamentary vote expected to confirm Sulaiman as the head of state was put off on Friday, for a seventh time, until Tuesday to give the rivals more time to reach agreement to secure the two-thirds quorum needed for the election.

"I do not think there is any going back," Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces group, told Voice of Lebanon radio.

"I doubt very much, with what I know, I doubt that there is anything that will stop, obstruct or hold up the election of General Michel Sulaiman," he said. "I hope it will be during the coming week," he added, in reference to the election.

Electing Sulaiman would ease Lebanon's worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war and fill a post that has been vacant since pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud's term ended on November 23.

The rival blocs have yet to agree on how to amend the constitution, which forbids a senior public servant from running for president, and are also discussing the shape of a new government to take office after the election.

Demands by Geagea rival Michel Aoun - a Christian leader and Hezbollah ally - are also complicating efforts to forge a deal.

Sulaiman, 59, was appointed army chief in 1998 when Syria still dominated Lebanon. He has good ties with Hezbollah, the powerful armed group backed by Syria and Iran.

US regrets postponement

The governing coalition's nomination of Sulaiman was a setback for its leaders, who had hoped to elect someone who shared their agenda of curbing Syrian influence in Lebanon and seeking the disarmament of Hezbollah.

But Geagea said Sulaiman was acceptable to both sides. "There is nobody who fears that he has bad intentions," he said.

The US State Department said on Friday it regrets the postponement of the Lebanese parliament's presidential vote.

"Today Lebanon's parliament once again failed to elect a president. While a majority of members are ready to vote for a proposed constitutional amendment, a minority in the opposition did not agree to permit the proposed amendment to pass through the Cabinet, as the Lebanese constitution requires," department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said in a statement.

"The United States regrets the attempts by some MPs to link non-constitutional measures to presidential elections," he said.