U.N. chief Ban urges end to Lebanon blockades

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged opposition groups in Lebanon to end blockades of roads and the airport, his Lebanon envoy said on Thursday, warning that the crisis was the worst since the civil war.

"We remain gravely concerned about the potential for further escalation of the situation," U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen told the U.N. Security Council.

Supporters of Iranian-backed opposition group Hezbollah and its allies have blocked roads leading to the airport -- Lebanon's only air link to the outside world -- and other main streets, paralyzing much of the capital.

Sporadic gunbattles erupted between Hezbollah supporters and pro-government loyalists in the Bekaa Valley in the east of the country, wounding five people, security sources said.

"The secretary-general urges all parties to cease immediately these riots and to reopen all roads in the country," Roed-Larsen said.

He said recent clashes showed Lebanon faced "challenges of a magnitude unseen since the end of the civil war," and warned of serious regional repercussions.

Street confrontations this week have aggravated the country's worst internal crisis since the 1975-90 civil war and exacerbated sectarian tension between Sunnis loyal to the government and Shi'ites who support the opposition.

Roed-Larsen said the crisis was centered on the failure to elect a president. "The electoral void has fueled political polarization," he told the Council.

Hezbollah has led a political campaign for almost 18 months against Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's anti-Syrian cabinet.

Tension between the government and Hezbollah rose sharply on Tuesday when the cabinet said the group's communications network was "an attack on the sovereignty of the state".

Hezbollah said it was part of its security apparatus and had played an important role in its war with Israel in 2006. It said the government had declared war by targeting its communications network.

Roed-Larsen said Ban stood firmly behind the "legitimate Lebanese government," and said the presence of Lebanese and foreign militias was a major challenge to the government.

"Hezbollah ... maintains a massive para-military infrastructure separate from the state," Roed-Larsen said.

He said Ban urged all parties with ties to Hezbollah, particularly Syria and Iran, to support the group's transformation into a solely political party.

Roed-Larsen also called for renewed political dialogue to resolve the stalemate over electing a president, and said he supported calls for election of army chief General Michel Suleiman who has been agreed as a consensual candidate.

Lebanese rivals have agreed that Suleiman should fill the presidency, vacant since the term of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud expired five months ago, but his confirmation by parliament has been derailed by a dispute over cabinet seats.

Roed-Larsen said Lebanon remained "a battleground for actors seeking to destabilize the region for their own benefit and aspirations of dominance."

He called for a normalization of ties with Syria, and said Israel should stop violating Lebanese territorial integrity by sending its aircraft into Lebanese airspace.

(Editing by Frances Kerry)