Lebanon talks in Qatar progress, major hurdles remain

By Nadim Ladki

DOHA (Reuters) - Rival Lebanese leaders made progress towards ending their political crisis on Sunday but disagreements over Hezbollah's weapons remained a major hurdle to a Qatari-mediated deal.

Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, weighed in on the third day of talks, meeting members of the U.S.-backed ruling coalition and Hezbollah-led opposition to try to bridge differences.

Delegates said Sheikh Hamad brought together Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a senior opposition leader, for the first time in 18 months as part of efforts to solve the crisis that has left Lebanon with no president and taken it close to civil war.

Delegates said the differences were slowly narrowing over the two key issues on the agenda -- a new election law and power-sharing in the government.

But talks may yet stumble over a demand from the governing coalition for clear guarantees that Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and Syria, would not turn its guns on them again and that the fate of its arms would be debated in Lebanon soon.

Arab mediators clinched a deal on Thursday to end Lebanon's worst internal fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war, in which Hezbollah routed supporters of the U.S.-backed government and briefly seized parts of Beirut.

At least 81 people were killed in the violence, which exacerbated sectarian tensions between Shi'ites loyal to Hezbollah and Druze and Sunni followers of the ruling coalition.

The fate of Hezbollah's weapons is not on the agenda of the Doha talks but delegates said Arab mediators were consulting on the issue with regional power brokers including Iran and Saudi Arabia, which is a leading supporter of the ruling coalition.