BEIRUT: A US envoy urged feuding Lebanese politicians on Saturday to elect a new president to restore “dignity” to a position vacant for three weeks, as France warned a vote set for the coming week is the “last chance” to resolve the crisis.

“The United States believes that it is time now to elect a new president,” US Middle East envoy David Welch said in Beirut, ahead of a new session of parliament called for Monday after eight attempts to elect a president failed.

All MPs must “fulfil their duty” to elect a president in order “to restore dignity and respect to the most important Christian office”, Welch said at the start of an unannounced visit.

“This is what Lebanon needs to face the challenges... We know there are many pressures,” Welch said, reiterating Washington’s support for Lebanon as it faces its worst crisis since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.

Lebanon has been without a president since Emile Lahoud stepped down on Nov 23 without a successor in place.

The Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has been unable to reach agreement with the Syrian and Iranian-backed opposition on a replacement for the pro-Syrian Lahoud.

Welch was held talks with pro-opposition parliament speaker Nabih Berri ahead of a meeting with Sinora.

Earlier, he met Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, spiritual leader of the Maronite Christian community from which Lebanese presidents are conventionally drawn.

Welch’s visit came a day after a state funeral for senior army commander Brigadier General Francois el-Hajj who was killed in a car bombing on Wednesday.

Hajj had been tipped to become army chief if a compromise plan to elect incumbent General Michel Sleiman as president is accepted by MPs on Monday.

Sleiman’s election requires an amendment to the constitution which bars government employees from becoming head of state within two years of leaving their jobs.

France, the former colonial power in Lebanon which has been heavily involved in international mediation efforts, warned the feuding factions and their foreign sponsors that time was running out for a solution.

“Monday is really the last chance, and France calls on all parties, inside and outside, to ensure that Lebanon can have a president,” President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday.

“Those (who) would take the risk of killing off that chance would cut themselves off from a number of countries, first among them France,” he said.

On Thursday, US President George Bush accused Syria of interfering in the Lebanese presidential election.

“As Lebanon seeks to select a president democratically and in accordance with its constitution, interference by the Syrian regime and its allies, aimed at intimidating the Lebanese people, must end,” Bush said.

Efforts to push through Sleiman’s election have foundered amid demands by the Hezbollah-led opposition for agreement on the shape of the next government ahead of the vote.

“We want a consensus president as part of a full basket... All we are talking about is the cabinet which must represent all parties and confessions,” deputy Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said in comments published on Saturday.

The opposition pulled its six ministers out of the cabinet in November last year. Opposition leaders, including the parliament speaker, have since refused to recognise the legitimacy of Siniora’s rump cabinet, demanding that it make way for a government of national unity.

The standoff has paralysed the government’s legislative programme, including flagship plans for an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 murder of five-times prime minister Rafiq Hariri, a crime widely blamed on Syria.

The outgoing head of the UN inquiry into the killing Serge Brammertz of Belgium and his successor Daniel Bellemare of Canada held met Berri on Saturday, the speaker’s office said.—AFP