BEIRUT, May 24, 2008 (AFP) - Lebanese lawmakers are poised to elect army chief Michel Sleiman as president on Sunday in a first step toward defusing a crippling and often deadly 18-month standoff between rival factions.

Sleiman, 59, will be elected during a session attended by several foreign dignitaries, including Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa.

It was Qatari mediation during talks in Doha that brokered a deal on Wednesday morning to end the impasse, which earlier this month had degenerated into violence, killing 65 people and pushing Lebanon to the brink of civil war. Ali Hamdan, spokesman for parliament speaker Nabih Berri, told AFP that among the 200 dignitaries invited were also the foreign ministers of Syria and Iran. Those two countries are strong backers of the Hezbollah-led opposition, of which Berri's Amal party is part.

US-backed Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and members of his current cabinet have also been invited to attend.

And Hamdan said a US congressional delegation had been invited and would be headed by Representative Nick Rahall, a West Virginia Democrat of Lebanese origin.

"The speaker wants this election to be a reconciliation wedding," he said.

Sleiman's main challenge will be to impose himself as a neutral figure in order to reconcile the interests of the parliamentary majority, from which the current Siniora government is drawn, and the opposition.

The Doha accord calls for Sleiman's election, a national unity government in which the opposition has veto power and a new law for parliamentary elections due next year.

The deal came only after Hezbollah piled pressure on Siniora's government earlier this month, staging a spectacular takeover of mainly Sunni west Beirut in a matter of hours.

But while the Doha accord brought the country back from the brink of civil war, it failed to address many key issues, including Hezbollah's arsenal.

Under the deal, Sleiman will choose three ministers in the new 30-member cabinet, and he will be treading a fine line as he tries to maintain the peace.

"I cannot save the country on my own," he told the pro-opposition daily As-Safir this week. "This mission requires the efforts of all.

"Security is not achieved by force but joint political will."

Some people accuse him of being a supporter of Syria, Lebanon's neighbour and former powerbroker, but he has managed in his nearly 10 years as armed forces chief to steer clear of taking sides.

The presidency was left vacant in November, when pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud stepped down at the end of his term with no elected successor because of the political crisis.

The crisis erupted in November 2006 when six pro-Syrian ministers quit the cabinet in a bid to force the ruling bloc to give the opposition more representation in the government.

The standoff was widely seen as an extension of the confrontation pitting the United States against Syria and Iran.

Although he hails from the Maronite Christian community, from which Lebanon's presidents are traditionally drawn, Sleiman says he is against religion playing a central part in politics.

Sleiman hails from the northern coastal town of Amsheet. He joined the army in 1967, following in the footsteps of his father, a member of the Internal Security Forces.

He graduated from the military academy in 1970 and moved up the ranks until being appointed to the job job in December 1998.

The general and his wife, Wafaa, have three children.

jz/al/jj

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