Beirut - Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa on Sunday secured a meeting between rival Lebanese Leaders in a fresh bid to end a 15-month-old political crisis that has left the country without a president for three months. Mussa hosted the meeting bringing together former president Amin Gemayel and member of Parliament Saad Hariri from the ruling majority with General Michel Aoun, representing the Hezbollah-led opposition.
Mussa, who had arrived earlier in Beirut, said, he "will pick up talks with the Lebanese sides where we left off."
Sources close to House Speaker Nabih Berri, a leading member of the opposition and close ally of Hezbollah, said the "atmosphere is positive so far."
The talks under Mussa took place at the Parliament building, but there was no immediate word on the results of the meeting.
Mussa is in Beirut on yet another mission to defuse Lebanon's political crisis, just two days before Parliament is due to meet in a further effort to elect a president who will satisfy the rival factions.
Grappling with its worst internal crisis since the end of the 15- year civil war in 1990, Lebanon has been without a president since late November. So far, 14 attempts to hold a Parliament vote to choose a new head of state have been cancelled.
Mussa met earlier with Berri and with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Seniora as well as Hariri, head of the ruling majority.
Mussa is trying to gain support for an Arab three-point plan that calls for the election of Lebanese Army Chief General Michel Suleiman as consensus president, the formation of a national unity government in which no single party has veto power, and a new electoral law.
Despite agreement on Suleiman as a replacement for Emile Lahoud, the Western-backed Lebanese majority and the pro-Syrian opposition have failed to agree on power-sharing in a future government.
Arab analysts and recent media reports have suggested that Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab countries may boycott the scheduled Damascus Arab summit or send low-level delegates if a solution is not reached in the Lebanese crisis.
Syria backs Lebanon's opposition, which is headed by the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.
