Differences postpone new Lebanese government

The announcement of the new Lebanese government which was expected on Wednesday was postponed because of differences over the rate of representation for the Christian leader Michael Aoun and the Shiite coalition which supports Syria.

Due to this difference, Aoun, who presides over the Free National trend, announced pending the participation of his bloc in the new government. This decision came after the designated prime minister Fouad Sanyoura on Tuesday submitted the list of his ministerial formation to the Lebanese President Emil Lahoud.

Sources in the Lebanese presidency said that Lahoud will propose three changes to the formation which was opposed by the two trends of Aoun and the Shiite coalition, which is composed of Amal movement and Hizbullah party, over the percent of their representation in the parliament.

The sources added that Sanyoura is persistent on his formation, and seemed unprepared to introduce changes on them, leaving the door open before the possibility of his resignation from the formation of the government. The sources said that Lahoud will be meeting on today with Sanyoura in Baabda palace.

The first ministerial formation which was composed of 24 ministers won the consent of both Hizbullah and the Amal movement and also the consent of Aoun who leads a 21-seat parliamentary bloc out of the parliament's 128 seats.

However, hours after the assassination attempt of the defense minister Elias al-Murr in a booby trapped car explosion near Beirut, Sanyoura submitted to President Lahoud the ministerial formation adding to it six ministers four of them are from the supporters of the bloc of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri and thereby this was a surprise to the Aoun trend and the Amal and Hizbullah movements.