BEIRUT, May 14: An Arab League delegation met with rival leaders in Beirut on Wednesday in a bid to mediate a settlement to deadly sectarian gunbattles that have driven Lebanon close to civil war.

The team, headed by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, held talks with members of the US-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition, who have been locked in a bitter political feud for 18 months.

By late evening, there was no apparent breakthrough as the cabinet of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora gathered to decide on the next step.

Several officials close to the majority and the opposition said the government would likely cancel measures against Hezbollah on Thursday as part of a “package deal” following further meetings.

“The government is unlikely to announce any decisions tonight,” one official told AFP.

“It will probably do so tomorrow as part of a package deal,” he added, without elaborating.

A government decision last week to launch a probe into a telecommunication network set up by Hezbollah and to reassign the head of airport security over allegations he was close to the powerful Shia group sparked the worst sectarian violence since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.

The clashes, which left at least 65 people dead and 200 wounded, saw Hezbollah and its allies take over mainly Sunni neighbourhoods of west Beirut.

Although the opposition withdrew at the weekend after the army moved in, it has refused to lift its blockade on Beirut’s airport and its campaign of civil disobedience unless the government revokes its controversial measures and gets back to the negotiating table.

For its part, the majority has said that it will not negotiate under the gun and is insisting that the issue of Hezbollah’s weapons be addressed.

The official Syrian press said on Wednesday that Hezbollah’s takeover of Beirut was a “legitimate defence” against a coup attempt.

The Arab League has failed repeatedly in recent months to mediate an end to the long-running standoff between the ruling majority and opposition that exploded into deadly gunbattles last week.

“Hezbollah, the so-called protector of the Lebanese against Israel has now turned on its own people,” said Bush, who arrived in Israel on Wednesday at the start of a Middle East tour.

“Hezbollah is supported by Iran, and it’s an Iranian effort to destabilise Lebanon’s democracy, and the United States stands strongly with the Siniora government.” Senior US national security officials have said Washington plans to intensify its pressure on Syria and Iran over their alleged support for Hezbollah’s uprising against the Lebanese government.

“We are going to be unrolling a few things in the course of the week, starting perhaps with the (UN) Security Council,” said deputy White House national security advisor Elliott Abrams.

Separately, Washington said it planned to speed up deliveries of previously agreed military aid to the Lebanese army. “We have an ongoing military assistance programme for Lebanon,” State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters.

“That is something that has been active over the last couple of years and is designed to be able to help the Lebanese military carry out its mandate to provide security for the entirety of the country,” he said.

“I know that there are a number of things in the pipeline for them. And my understanding is we’ll be trying to move some of those things through the pipeline in an expedited fashion,” Casey said.

“We have a very robust package of support for the Lebanese military and we intend to carry that out and give them the kind of help that they need to be able to, again, carry out their mission and support the Lebanese people,” he said.

The fighting marks a dramatic escalation in a deep political crisis which erupted in November, 2006, when six pro-Syrian ministers quit seeking more opposition representation in the government. —AFP