BEIRUT (AFP) - Pro-Syrian Lebanese President Emile Lahoud named former premier Omar Karameh to succeed Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, who resigned a day earlier amid international criticism of the influence Damascus wields over its tiny neighbour.
Presidential press secretary Rafiq Shlala said in a statement that "Mr Lahoud had received Mr Karameh and charged him with forming a new government."
Karameh, 70, told AFP he would begin discussions on that task on Friday.
He said he considered his principal task to be one of opposing outside pressure on Lebanon and Syria and to pave the way for legislative elections in seven months' time.
"It is our duty to confront with spirit and an open heart during this delicate period external pressures on Lebanon and on Syria," Karameh told the press after his meeting with Lahoud, apparently in reference to moves by the international community to get Syria to reduce its influence on Lebanon.
"My government will last seven months, until legislative elections," he continued, promising to arrange elections in such a way as to "allow the best popular representation".
The current crisis erupted on September 3, when parliament approved a controversial Syrian-inspired constitutional amendment extending Lahoud's mandate for another three years.
That move came only hours after the UN Security Council adopted a resolution aimed at Syria calling for all foreign troops to be withdrawn from Lebanon and an end to outside interference in its affairs.
Syria has around 16,000 troops on the ground in Lebanon, the remains of a much larger force sent in during the 1975-1990 civil war.
"I will attempt to introduce reforms and stop the waste, but the problems are numerous and enormous ... I have no illusions," Karameh added.
Lebanon is facing a serious economic crisis with debts of around 35 billion dollars as well as perceived widespread corruption.
A prominent Sunni Muslim figure in the northern city of Tripoli, Karameh was premier from December 1990 until May 1992, when he was succeeded by first-timer Hariri after being forced out by nationwide protests over the economy.
Currently a member of parliament, he is a conservative politician with strong ties to Syria and is an archfoe of Hariri.
Under the complex arrangements of Lebanon's constitution, the prime minister is always selected from the Sunni community, while the president is always a Maronite Christian and the parliamentary speaker a Shiite Muslim.
Karameh was widely tipped to succeed Hariri, with the media predicting Thursday that he would form a government of "confrontation" with the opposition and Western powers demanding Damascus pull its troops out of Lebanon.
The departure of billionaire Hariri, credited as the driving force behind Lebanon's reconstruction after the devastating civil war, has cast a large cloud over the country as it grapples with a deepening economic crisis.
Lahoud, a longtime political rival of Hariri, held a constitutionally mandated series of meetings with MPs Thursday before naming Karameh.
But the meetings were widely believed to be no more than a formality, with several MPs already saying Karameh would be picked.
An official tally released Thursday evening said that 82 out of 128 MPs supported Karameh.
The 16 members of Hariri's bloc declined to support anyone. Anti-Syrian Christian MPs and the 18-strong group of prominent Druze leader Walid Jumblatt refused to participate.
Jumblatt said Wednesday that there was no point in doing so "because the make-up of the government has been decided in advance."
Following Hariri's announcement, US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told Syria the selection of a new premier should be "a purely Lebanese process."
The departure of Hariri, who has close ties to Western leaders and financial creditors including Saudi Arabia, has raised concerns over the precarious economic health of the country.
On Thursday, Beirut stock market leader Solidere, whose main shareholder is Hariri, saw its cash shares plunge 6.47 percent. That precipitated a 3.94 percent drop in the BLOM market index.
The Lebanese pound was stable at 1,514 to the dollar, at the lower end of the central bank's fixed trading range, with one trader saying there had been only a slight increase in demand for the greenback.
10-21-2004, 18h53