Lebanon president set to appoint PM

By Tom Perry

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese President Michel Suleiman will appoint a prime minister on Wednesday to head a new cabinet to be formed as part of an agreement ending 18 months of political conflict.

Suleiman, who was elected by parliament on Sunday, will consult lawmakers on Wednesday on their choice for prime minister, a statement from the presidency said. He will ask the candidate nominated by most MPs to form the next government.

The parliamentary majority is expected to nominate its leader, Saad al-Hariri, or current prime minister, Fouad Siniora. The prime minister must be a Sunni according to Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system.

Qatar last week mediated the agreement between the U.S.-backed ruling coalition and the Hezbollah-led opposition alliance, defusing a crisis that has caused the worst civil strife since Lebanon's 1975-90 war.

Hezbollah, a Shi'ite group backed by Iran and Syria, routed followers of ruling coalition leaders, including Hariri, in six days of fighting that killed 81 this month.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the group's leader, spoke of great wounds on both sides in his first comments since the fighting, which exacerbated tensions between Shi'ites loyal to his group and Sunni and Druze followers of the governing coalition.

"The election of General Michel Suleiman as president of the republic renews the hopes of the Lebanese for a new era," Nasrallah said in a speech to mark the eighth anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon.

"I reiterate the call for true, national participation."

Hariri, Lebanon's main Sunni leader, also expressed hope. "We hope that a new phase in the lives of the Lebanese will begin after the election of President Michel Suleiman and that we open a new page in politics and reconciliation," he said.

Were he to become prime minister, Hariri would take up a post previously held by his father Rafik al-Hariri, whose February 14, 2005 assassination plunged Lebanon into more than three years of crisis.

FOES BACK SULEIMAN

Suleiman's election was secured as part of the Doha agreement. The deal met the opposition's demand for effective veto power in cabinet.

Suleiman, commander of the army for a decade, has won public backing from the United States, Iran and Syria.

President George W. Bush congratulated Suleiman on his election in a telephone call and invited him to Washington for talks. "President Bush reiterated his commitment to the government of Lebanon and to a strong and modern Lebanese Armed Forces," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

The presidents of Iran and Syria have also both congratulated the 59-year-old general. "We are very happy to see that the Doha dialogue has yielded benefit," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters in Beirut.