Lahoud confers with US congress delegation on regional peace

Lebanese President Emil Lahoud has stressed that Syria's role was the basic element for stability in Lebanon.

During his meeting on Thursday with the US congress delegation led by Senator Robert Graham, the chairman of Select Committee on Intelligence at the Senate, Lahoud said that Syria had helped in the foundation of the Lebanese army and supported the civil peace process in Lebanon following the Taif accord.

The Lebanese president renewed Lebanon's rejection to the vision included in the recent speech made by President George Bush towards finding a solution in the region. He said that these ideas ( of President Bush) can not be considered a work plan in order to settle the situation in the region because they do not have any solutions for the current explosive situation and only have ideas for the future.

Lahoud also renewed Lebanon's condemnation of terrorism and to make a distinction between terrorist acts and the rights of people to restore back their occupied lands.

Lahoud denied any link between the Hizbullah party and al-Qaida organization. He accused the world media controlled by "world Zionism" of promoting such claims with the aim of damaging Lebanon and "its national resistance." For his part US Senator Mike DeWine said following the meeting that the US delegation held frank and serious talks dealt with the future of Lebanese- American relations. He said that discussions dealt with several issues and President Lahoud expressed concern over terrorism in the world.

The US senator explained that the aim of his tour on the region is to maintain fact finding. He stressed that the discussions the US congress delegation made with President Bashar al-Assad in Syria were very frank.