Arab ministers back Arab League Lebanon efforts

CAIRO (Reuters) - Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa will press his efforts to mediate between rival Lebanese leaders to end the country's deepening political crisis, the Cairo-based organisation said on Sunday.

At an emergency session in Cairo, Arab foreign ministers agreed that Moussa should try to help rival parties reach an agreement on the make-up of a national unity cabinet, a final communique read.

The crisis, Lebanon's worst since the 1975-1990 civil war, has left the country without a president since November, when the term of the pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud expired.

The ministers unanimously backed an Arab League initiative that calls for electing Army Chief Michel Suleiman as president, forming a national unity government and formulating a new electoral law.

But Lebanon's rival leaders have been at odds over the formation of the government.

Moussa told the ministers the anti-Syrian majority has shown more flexibility by accepting his initial proposal on the cabinet make-up, which gives the coalition 13 members, three more than the opposition.

He said the pro-Syrian opposition, led by the Islamist group Hezbollah, was adamant on having at least enough members to exercise veto powers.

"What is needed is a consensus solution, not the opinion of this or that," Moussa told a news conference after the meeting, which lasted more than seven hours.

Efforts to end the crisis have been complicated by rivalry between Syria and Saudi Arabia, which supports the anti-Syria governing coalition.

(Reporting by Mohamed Abdellah, writing by Alaa Shahine; editing by Elizabeth Piper)