Lebanon’s failure to form government regretful

Arab League chief Amr Mussa on Friday voiced regrets over the failure of Lebanese politicians to agree on the makeup of a new government, more than two weeks since the naming of a prime minister.

"We are surprised, and we regret and express our reproach because a government still has not been formed," Mussa said after arriving in Beirut on a private visit.

Forming a cabinet "is an inseparable part of the Doha accord and a pillar of Lebanon's stability," he said, referring to a deal worked out last month under Qatari mediation that brought Lebanon's feuding political factions back from the brink of civil war.

"We hope the Lebanese will succeed in forming a government quickly," he later said after a meeting with President Michel Suleiman, the former army commander who was elected on May 25 under the terms of the Doha agreement.

Suleiman had been a consensus candidate accepted by both the Western-backed parliamentary majority and the Iranian- and Syria-backed opposition, but their failure to agree on the makeup of a national unity government and a new electoral law blocked his election for six months.

On May 28, Suleiman named caretaker prime minister Fuad Siniora to form the new government. Saniora has so far failed because of disagreement over who should head the defense, interior, finance and foreign relations portfolios.

The constitution sets no deadlines for forming a government, once someone has been tasked with doing so, nor does it provide a mechanism for withdrawing that mandate from an unsuccessful prime minister-designate.

Mussa said he was in Lebanon on a private visit to attend the wedding of a daughter of parliament speaker Nabih Berri, but he plans to meet with senior figures in the country.