BEIRUT: Lebanon’s parliamentary vote due on Friday to elect a president is set to be delayed for a seventh time as feuding parties accuse each other of blocking the process, several politicians said on Thursday.

“Friday’s session is most probably going to be delayed,” said Ammar Houry, an MP from the Future bloc of parliament majority leader Saad Hariri.

After weeks of bitter negotiations, rival leaders have agreed on army chief General Michel Sleiman for the top job but are still divided on how to amend the constitution to allow his election and the make-up of a new cabinet, officials have said.

MP Ibrahim Kanaan of the Free Patriotic Movement of Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun, said the vote would probably be delayed by common agreement between the Western-backed ruling majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition.

“Even if there is a political agreement, we will not have time to carry out a constitutional amendment between today and tomorrow” to elect Sleiman, said Kanaan.

Article 49 of the constitution bars public servants from assuming the presidency within two years of stepping down from their posts.

Lebanon has been without a president since Nov 23, when incumbent Emile Lahoud stepped down at the end of his term and feuding political parties were unable to agree on a successor.

Six sessions scheduled to elect a president have already been postponed since September amid fears the crisis would lead to unrest in a country still recovering from its 1975-1990 civil war.

France, Lebanon’s former colonial power, has been leading efforts to end the crisis that escalated a year ago when six pro-Syrian ministers quit the government and paralysed its work.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has been meeting leaders of the two rival camps since Tuesday, his seventh mediation bid in Beirut in the past six months.

Early on Thursday, Kouchner met Hariri and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a prominent opposition figure, for the second time in 24 hours, officials said.

While awaiting the results of the meeting, politicians from both sides continued to trade accusations.

“Kouchner was surprised by the negative position of the majority which has been refusing to offer any compromise,” Kanaan said. He also accused Hariri of being “not ready to give up the premiership.”

Media reports said in recent days that Hariri was eyeing the post of prime minister to replace Fuad Siniora, once a close aide to his father, Rafiq Hariri, who was assassinated in February 2005.

Aoun has presented a plan to end the crisis over the presidency, which stipulated that independent figures should be chosen to fill the posts of president and prime minister. The ruling majority has rejected the plan.

The Hezbollah-led opposition has been seeking a “comprehensive deal” to end the crisis, including agreements on the new president, the make-up of the next government, a new electoral law and the appointment of security chiefs.

The ruling majority has insisted that it would not be tied down to any pre-set deals before a president is elected, saying that lingering problems would be dealt with by the future government and parliament.

“The important thing is to have a new president, and after that the institutions will decide the future of the country,” ruling majority MP Samir Frangieh said.

He also accused the Lebanese opposition of following “a Syrian-Iranian decision... to block the presidential election.”—AFP