BEIRUT, Aug 29 (AFP) - Lebanese President Emile Lahoud seemed assured of three more years in office at powerbroker Syria's behest Sunday, after the cabinet opened the way in a session lasting only a few minutes.
The anger of opposition figures and strong criticism from the United States and European countries failed to deter ministers Saturday from approving a bill to change the constitution to enable Lahoud to stay on after his term expires in November.
But the head of the Lebanese branch of Syria's ruling Baath party, Minister of State Assem Kanso, admitted that local and international pressure had forced the cabinet to compromise on three years instead of a full second term of six.
The bill now goes to parliament, which the government also decreed should begin a special session Monday to debate the measure. But Lahoud's information adviser Rafiq Chlala had no doubt that the necessary majority of two-thirds of the 128 MPs to amend the constitution would be obtained and the president's victory assured.
Opposition presidential candidate Boutros Harb was still hopeful that the measure would not pass and Lahoud would still be barred from standing for a second term.
"The amendment is still only a draft and will only be definitive if parliament votes for it," he said after talks with Maronite Christian patriarch Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, a strong opponent of the change and of the Syrian presence in Lebanon.
Harb said there would not necessarily be the required majority and called for intensive lobbying to try to sway the issue before the vote, which he predicted would take place "very soon".
Only the three ministers of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt's parliamentary group voted against the bill in cabinet on Saturday, with 23 in favour, including Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, a rival of Lahoud who fell into line after being summoned to Damascus by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Two other ministers were out of the country and two more, including Foreign Minister Jean Obeid, stayed away for reasons that were not clear but both are understood to have presidential ambitions.
Jumblatt blasted the measure in favour of Lahoud, a former army commander, saying "freedom and the military are mutually exclusive opposites."
A leading opposition figure, member of parliament Nassib Lahoud, said: "The Syrian decision is an attack on Lebanon's sovereignty and the dignity of the Lebanese.
"It will have disastrous economic and political results and maintain Lebanon's relations with Syria as a dependency instead of a strategic partnership."
Another opposition MP, Fares Souaid, called it "a black day in the history of Lebanon and democracy" and called for the bill to be blocked "by all diplomatic means."
Syria first intervened in Lebanon in 1976 during the country's civil war and helped to broker the Taif accords that ended the conflict in 1990 with the adoption of the current constitution.
Damascus, which has more than 15,000 troops in Lebanon but no embassy, forced through amendments in 1995, to give then president Elias Hraoui another three years in office, and in 1998, to allow Lahoud to run although he was still army commander.
State television LBC said the 1995 amendment was justified by the fact that peace negotiations were under way in the Middle East, while the new one was passed after Lahoud said Lebanon was in danger from "Israeli threats."