BEIRUT (AFP) — Lebanon's parliamentary vote due on Friday to elect a president is set to be delayed for a seventh time as feuding parties accuse each other of blocking the process, several politicians said on Thursday.
"Friday's session is most probably going to be delayed," said Ammar Houry, an MP from the Future bloc of parliament majority leader Saad Hariri.
After weeks of bitter negotiations, rival leaders have agreed on army chief General Michel Sleiman for the top job but are still divided on how to amend the constitution to allow his election and on the make-up of a new cabinet.
Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun reiterated on Thursday that he would only endorse Sleiman for two years until the 2009 parliamentary elections, and blamed the ruling majority for the deadlock.
"I have made enough compromises and I will add a new demand every day," Aoun told a news conference.
The ruling majority "led us to the void. They thought that the void would scare us ... but it does not scare us and the presidency will always be there," he said.
"If not now, in a week, if not, in a month or in a year. The country will not be destroyed, more than this current government has been destroying it," said Aoun, who had himself been running for the top job.
MP Ibrahim Kanaan of Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement earlier said Friday's vote could be delayed by common agreement between the Western-backed ruling majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition.
"Even if there is a political agreement, we will not have time to carry out a constitutional amendment between today and tomorrow" to elect Sleiman, said Kanaan.
Article 49 of the constitution bars public servants from assuming the presidency within two years of stepping down from their posts.
Lebanon has been without a president since November 23, when incumbent Emile Lahoud stepped down at the end of his term.
Six sessions to elect a president have already been postponed since September amid fears the crisis would lead to unrest in a country still recovering from its 1975-1990 civil war.
France, Lebanon's former colonial power, has been leading efforts to end a crisis that first erupted a year ago when six pro-Syrian ministers quit the government and paralysed its work.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has been meeting leaders of the two rival camps since Tuesday, his seventh mediation bid in Beirut in the past six months.
On Thursday, he met Hariri and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a prominent opposition figure, for the second time in 24 hours, officials said.
While awaiting the results of the meeting, politicians from both sides continued to trade accusations.
"Kouchner was surprised by the negative position of the majority which has been refusing to offer any compromise," Kanaan said, accusing Hariri of not being ready to give up the premiership.
In recent days, media reports have said Hariri was eyeing the post of prime minister to replace Fuad Siniora, once a close aide to his father, Rafiq, who was assassinated in 2005.
Aoun has suggested the crisis over the presidency could end if independent figures are chosen to fill the posts of president and prime minister, a proposal the ruling majority has rejected.
The Hezbollah-led opposition has been seeking a "comprehensive deal" to end the crisis, including agreements on the new president, the make-up of the next government, a new electoral law and the appointment of security chiefs.
The ruling majority has insisted that it would not be tied down to any pre-set deals before a president is elected, saying lingering problems would be dealt with by the future government and parliament.
"The important thing is to have a new president, and after that the institutions will decide the future of the country," ruling majority MP Samir Frangieh told AFP.
He also accused the Lebanese opposition of following "a Syrian-Iranian decision... to block the presidential election."
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