In his annual Christmas message on Friday, influential Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, head of the Maronite Catholic community from which Lebanon’s presidents are drawn, urged all parties to unite and end Lebanon’s political vacuum. "We have to reject hatred… and stop seeking personal interests at the expense of national interests," he said.  "The presidency has been vacant for more than half a month, parliament has been paralysed for about a year and our government is limping with some cabinet members pursuing a strike," he said.

On Thursday, US President George W. Bush accused Damascus of seeking to destabilise Lebanon despite having withdrawn troops from its smaller neighbour in April 2005 after 29 years of military domination."It is very important that Lebanon’s democracy succeed. I worked with the French to get Syria out of Lebanon, and Syria needs to stay out of Lebanon. Syria needs to let the process in Lebanon work," Bush said. US President George W. Bush on Thursday ruled out direct talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, saying his "patience ran out" on the Syrian leader "a long time ago.""So if he’s listening, he doesn’t need a phone call, he knows exactly what my position is," Bush said at a year-end press conference, after being asked whether he would talk to Assad to work on ending Lebanon’s political crisis."My patience ran out on President Assad a long time ago, and the reason why is because he houses Hamas, he facilitates Hezbollah, suiciders go from his country into Iraq and he destabilizes Lebanon," said Bush. The president said he was particularly vexed by what he said were Syria’s continued alleged efforts to foment instability in Lebanon, despite having withdrawn troops from there in April 2005. He also has suggested for the Parliament to go ahead with the vote without the votes of the opposition, and informed them that the world will support them even if there is no 2/3 of the votes.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem accused Washington of blocking what he called Syrian and French efforts to end the Lebanese deadlock. "They want the majority to monopolise the political decision-making process, instead of, as we and the French believe, all the parties being treated equally," he said. They want the (parliamentary) majority to monopolise the political decision-making process, instead of, as we and the French believe, all the parties being treated equally."He said a proposed Damascus-Paris solution aimed to agree a declaration of three principles; election of the army chief, General Michel Sleiman, after amending the constitution; formation of a national unity government and a fair rewriting of the electoral law.

In reaction,  " Sarkozy said that he wishes that this date be respected and that a solution on the electoral process be found," presidential spokesman David Martinon told a news conference. "(Sarkozy told Assad) again that France was more than ever committed to the election of a Lebanese president, a president of a broad appeal," Martinon said.

the opposition in Lebanon, accused Bush of "using its tools" — the majority coalition — to thwart attempts to reach a compromise over the presidency. "No, Bush, your orders cannot be implemented in Lebanon and your tutelage is rejected," Hezbollah number two Naim Kassem said in a statement on Friday. Lebanon’s  leader Michel Aoun said Friday that a parliamentary session scheduled for Saturday with the purpose of electing a new president will not go ahead, as no agreement had been reached between rival political factions. "There will no session but we hope for something positive after the holidays," Aoun said during a press conference.

Lebanese Information Minister Marwan Hamadeh said Muallem’s remarks were "deceptive." "As usual, the Syrian minister is fooled by his own deceptiveness, believing that it is still the era when Syria formed Lebanese governments," Hamadeh said in Beirut.Majority MPs Nayla Moawad and Elias Atallah told AFP on Friday that their camp was not seeking to impose a president, preferring to pursue efforts for a compromise accord with the opposition.But Moawad warned that "after the recent remarks by Muallem and Syrian Deputy President Faruq Shara, it is clear that the Syrian regime has taken the decision to block the presidential vote. "They want to create a crisis to prevent Lebanon from having a strong and independent state. They want to cause chaos to be able to use Lebanon as a negotiating card for their own interests," she said.

By Challiss McDonough, A political stalemate in Lebanon that started at the end of 2006 has dragged on through the entire year, culminating in a crisis that has left the country without a president.  VOA Middle East Correspondent Challiss McDonough reports from our bureau in Cairo.

As the year opened, Lebanon was in crisis.  Opposition protesters were camped outside the prime minister’s office, demanding the government’s resignation.  Opposition ministers had walked out of the Cabinet, and parliament did not convene for nearly a year.2007 culminated in a crisis over the presidency that has left Lebanon without a head of state since late November, when former President Emile Lahoud’s term expired.

The two sides have agreed in principle about who should be the next president, current Army chief, Gen. Michel Suleiman.  But his election in parliament has been repeatedly delayed as the political leaders bicker over the same issues that divided them back in January, the shape of the next government, and the opposition’s role in it. "The situation is very depressing right now in Lebanon, because you can see that the entire political leadership has decided it is OK to be without a president, and that it is OK to be in this constant state of political paralysis for months on end," said Mohamad Bazzi, a visiting fellow on Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

BEIRUT (AFP)–Lebanon’s presidential election was postponed for a ninth time Monday, to December 22, despite intense international efforts to convince rival parties to strike a deal and end a dangerous political vacuum. "The parliament session that was scheduled today has been postponed to Saturday December 22 at 12:30 p.m. (1030 GMT)," Mohamed Ballout, spokesman for parliament speaker Nabih Berri, told reporters.

Simon Abi Ramia, an adviser to Christian opposition leader General Michel Aoun, told AFP earlier that Monday’s session would not go ahead as no agreement had yet been reached on a mechanism to amend the constitution. Mustafa Alloush, a deputy with the majority, told AFP that political negotiations had reached a dead end. "We’re back to square one," he said.

DUBAI (AFP)

Lebanon – Lebanese politicians and military officers bade a mournful farewell to the martyr one of the top generals’ Francois el Hajj and his bodyguard Khairallah Hadwane Friday in a funeral that briefly united the deeply divided country. Hundreds of grieving Lebanese stood in a downpour along the route of Maj. Gen. Francois Hajj’s flag-draped casket from his home in a Beirutsuburb to the Maronite Catholic basilica in the Christian mountain heartland north of the capital.

"Their bloody message will not scare us," read one banner, refering to the still unknown killers, along a road also hung with Lebanese flags. An elderly woman threw rose petals in front of the procession as it passsed through the port of Jounieh/. "They killed Hajj because he was a clean leader, a poor and wise man with foresight," said Kafa Makhlouf, a 45-year-old Christian homemaker who drove an hour to Harisa, the mountain town overlooking the Mediterranean where the funeral mass was held.

On Thursday, security agents in the southern city of Sidon detained four Lebanese in whose names the car used in the bombing was registered. The men were detained from a neighborhood near the Ein el Helwee refugee camp, where Islamic militant groups are known to operate. But Defense Minister Elias Murr, speaking on Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. television late Thursday, said he would not limit the suspects to just "criminal terrorists"