Lebanese Parliament elects new President

Lebanon's Parliament yesterday elected army chief Michel Suleiman as head of state, reviving paralysed state institutions after an 18-month standoff between a US-backed government and the Hizbollah-led opposition.

Celebratory gunfire erupted in Beirut after Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri declared that Mr Suleiman, the sole candidate, had won by securing 118 votes from the 128-member assembly.

The election was part of an agreement brokered by Qatar last week to defuse a crisis that had swept Lebanon to the brink of civil war, with Hizbollah briefly seizing parts of Beirut and routing government partisans. At least 81 people were killed.

After the vote, Mr Suleiman, 59, took his oath of office in the chamber before making a speech that set the tone for his six-year term. Lebanon has had no President since November.

Tackling relations with neighbouring Syria, one of the many challenges his presidency will face, Mr Suleiman called for the establishment of formal diplomatic links with Damascus.

"We look strongly to brotherly ties between Lebanon and Syria in the context of mutual respect of the sovereignty and borders of each country and diplomatic ties which will bring good for both of them," the new President declared.

Syria, Lebanon's main powerbroker for 29 years until 2005, has never allowed embassies to open in both capitals.

The Doha deal was widely seen as a setback for Washington and its allies, which had pressed for Hizbollah to be disarmed.

However, US President George W. Bush, congratulating Mr Suleiman on his election, said in a statement: "I am hopeful that the Doha Agreement... will usher in an era of political reconciliation to the benefit of all Lebanese".

Mr Bush said he was confident that Lebanon had chosen a leader who would uphold the country's international obligations under UN resolutions that call for Hizbollah to be disarmed.

The US sent no high-level official to the assembly session, although a delegation from Congress was there.

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani was the most prominent of many dignitaries in Beirut for the vote.

Foreign ministers attending included those of Iran and Syria, which support Hizbollah, and their regional rival Saudi Arabia, which backs the anti-Syrian majority bloc.

The majority and the opposition had long agreed Mr Suleiman should be President, but a deadlock over the shape of a national unity government had forced the vote to be postponed 19 times.

The deal struck in Doha met the opposition's main demand for veto power in a unity government and secured the choice of a President on good terms with Syria and Hizbollah.

The agreement, which also stipulates a new law for 2009 parliamentary polls, has calmed a conflict that had stoked sectarian tensions, paralysed government and hurt the economy.

Parliament has not met for over 18 months, crippling Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government.