Sa'ad Hariri tipped to be premier-designate

Beirut: Sa'ad Hariri is set to be officially designated as Lebanon's prime minister today after a majority of parliamentarians nominated the US-backed politician to the post on Friday, officials said.

They said 67 of 97 MPs canvassed by President Michel Sulaiman told him they wanted the young billionaire to form the new cabinet, meaning he secured the required support of a majority of the 128-seat assembly. Sulaiman will designate Hariri once he ends consultations with the remaining MPs.

The Beirut stock index rose 2.4 per cent earlier in the day, in response to growing confidence that Hariri's nomination would be confirmed. Real estate company Solidere led the rally.

Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system reserves the premiership to a Sunni

Sources said Hariri would be nominated by his coalition's 71 MPs as well as the 13 parliamentarians in a bloc led by Nabih Berri, an ally of the Shiite movement Hezbollah.

Berri, who was re-elected as parliament speaker on Thursday, told reporters after nominating Hariri that his bloc would not take part in any government unless it was one of "consensus and real participation".

Hezbollah and its Christian ally Michel Aoun, who have 12 and 18 MPs respectively, did not nominate Hariri or anyone else for the post. But Mohammad Raad, leader of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, said the group was ready to cooperate with Hariri over the formation of the government.

Hezbollah had called for the formation of a national unity government with veto power for the minority alliance after the parliamentary election, though the group has not repeated the demand since the vote. Hariri rejects such a veto.

While his majority coalition could nominate him and effectively appoint him to the post, Hariri had been keen on getting the backing of his powerful rivals to ensure a smooth launch of his administration.

He offered to open a new page immediately after the election and called for the shelving of the contentious issue of disarming Hezbollah. The group, labelled as terrorist by the United States, has battled Israeli forces since the early 1980s.

It fought a 33-day battle against Israel in 2006. Saudi Arabia and western countries including the United States have been major supporters of Hariri, whose father Rafik Hariri was assassinated in 2005, and his allies in their power struggle with rivals backed by Syria and Iran.

The meeting between Hariri and Nasrallah was also set to defuse Sunni-Shiite tensions that threatened to boil over into a civil war last year when Hezbollah fighters routed Hariri and his allies' supporters in Beirut and mountains to the east.

A Qatari-sponsored deal in May 2008 ended the crisis but sectarian tensions rose again in the run-up to the election.

Hariri, 39, was thrown into politics in 2005 by the assassination of his father, becoming the strongest Sunni leader in a country where politics is defined by a sectarian system.

Nasrallah meets Hariri

Meanwhile, the Hezbollah says the group's chief met with Sa'ad Hariri, the leader of the Western-backed parliament majority in another step ahead of the expected formation of a unity government.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV says the meeting between Shi'ite cleric Shaikh Hassan Nasrallah and Sunni politician Hariri was held on Thursday night.

It comes about three weeks after parliament elections in which Hariri's coalition beat a Hezbollah alliance.

The meeting came just hours before President Michel Suleiman was to begin in Friday consultations with lawmakers about naming a premier-designate. Hariri is expected to be nominated for the post.