EU foreign ploicy Chief for Lebonon Political solution

BEIRUT, Mar 12; European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana today said he would push for a political solution to the four-month-old power struggle in Lebanon as he started a three-nation West Asia tour.

''It would be good to unblock the current political situation by the time of the summit,'' Solana said, referring to a March 28 meeting of Arab leaders.

The highlight of Solana's tour is a meeting on Wednesday with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, marking the latest step in the West's tentative rapprochement with Syria.

Solana will hold talks in Beirut with Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an opposition leader, before heading to Riyadh for talks with Saudi officials increasingly centre-stage in West Asia diplomacy.

Rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, which support opposing factions in Lebanon, agreed earlier this month to fight the spread of sectarian strife across the region.

Lebanese leaders later held talks that raised hopes of a deal to end the power struggle between the anti-Syrian majority coalition and the opposition which includes Hezbollah, backed by Syria and Iran.

Asked about his talks with the Hezbollah-allied speaker, Solana told reporters travelling with him to Beirut: ''I hope to give a push to get an understanding from Berri.'' COALITION DEMANDS The opposition quit government in November after Siniora and his allies, who are backed by Saudi Arabia, France and the United States, refused to give in to its demands of veto power in cabinet and early parliamentary elections.

A key demand of the ruling coalition is a tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

The tribunal has yet to win parliament backing and the opposition fears it may be used as a political tool. A U.N. inquiry has implicated Syrian and Lebanese officials in the killing but Syria denies the charges.

Syria has been in international diplomatic isolation for the past two years, the United States and France leading moves to ostracise it over its alleged role in Hariri's killing.

But with Damascus seen playing a key role in Lebanon, France last week ended its opposition to EU contacts. Separately, Syria was at the table at talks on Saturday with the United States and others aimed at finding ways to end the chaos in Iraq.

EU countries make up the bulk of an expanded 12,000-strong UN peace force deployed last year alongside Lebanese troops in south Lebanon after fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in which more than 1,300 people died.

Reuters