Arab League to invite Lebanese for talks in Qatar

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A high-level Arab League delegation starts a mediation mission to Beirut on Wednesday to try to pull the country back from the brink of a new civil war.

Arab foreign ministers had agreed to send the mission, to be led by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani and Arab League chief Amr Moussa, after Iranian-backed Hezbollah briefly seized control of the Muslim part of the capital before handing it over to the army last week.

A senior Lebanese political source said the delegation was expected to invite rival leaders to roundtable talks in Qatar later this week if it managed to ease tensions in Beirut.

"The Arab League mission opens a window for a solution," the source said. "It has specific steps that raise hopes of a compromise deal."

Hezbollah's fighters routed supporters of the U.S.-backed government in six days of fighting that erupted on May 7, after the cabinet banned Hezbollah's communications network and fired Beirut airport's security chief, who is close to the Shi'ite group.

The fighting quickly took sectarian tones raising concerns Lebanon was edging towards civil strife. At least 81 people have died in the fighting, the worst since the 1975-90 civil war.

The Lebanese source said the Arab delegation would propose that the government annul the two measures and the Hezbollah-led opposition would lift all roadblocks from Beirut and reopen Beirut's airport. Once these steps are agreed the rivals would be asked to travel to Qatar.

In a sign that such a deal could be in the works, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora called his beleaguered cabinet for a meeting later on Wednesday.

Lebanon's Sunni Muslim leader Saad al-Hariri pledged on Tuesday there would be no political surrender to what he called an attempt by Hezbollah and its Syrian and Iranian backers to impose their will on the nation by force.

But he welcomed the Arab mediation and left the door open for a compromise.

"I hope that with the Arab delegation we will find a solution," Hariri told a news conference. "We have reached the point of sectarian strife and everyone must compromise."

CORE ISSUES

The Arab delegation will hold talks in Beirut with top officials from both sides.

The source said any dialogue between rival leaders would focus on the core problems -- electing army commander General Michel Suleiman president, a national unity government and a new election law.

On Tuesday, Lebanon experienced its calmest day since violence broke out on May 7. Lebanon's army earlier stepped up patrols as part of a drive to restore order after a week of fighting in which Hezbollah and its allies triumphed.

Hariri's Future TV, forced off the air during the battles, resumed broadcasting shortly before the news conference.

The army measures were not seen as a challenge to Hezbollah, which has avoided friction with the military -- whose own composition reflects Lebanon's volatile sectarian mix.

Wary of fragmenting its ranks, the army has stayed neutral.

Saudi Arabia said that if Iran endorsed Hezbollah's actions it would affect the Islamic Republic's ties with the Arab world.

In Tehran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied his country was meddling in Lebanon.

Even though the army halted the fighting, it has no plans to remove street barricades paralyzing Beirut port and airport as part of the opposition campaign to press its political demands.

U.S. President George W. Bush is to consult allies on how to assist Lebanon when he visits the region this week. He pledged more aid to help the Lebanese army defend the government.

Bush will travel to Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, starting on Wednesday, and plans to meet Siniora in Egypt on Sunday.

The government has for 18 months resisted opposition demands for veto rights in cabinet, though Hezbollah has now shown it has the military muscle to block decisions it dislikes anyway.