BEIRUT - Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Omar Karameh, stung by his inability to form a government of national unity, will resign on Wednesday, state television announced.
The pro-Syrian Karameh resigned on February 28 in the face of protests sparked by the assassination of five-time premier Rafiq Hariri in a bomb blast blamed by the opposition on Damascus.
On March 10, pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud asked him to attempt to form a new government, but the emboldened opposition has refused all blandishments to join a new broad-based coalition.
Earlier Tuesday, Karameh aide Khaldoun Charif said Karameh would meet parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri on Tuesday before being received by President Emile Lahoud on Wednesday to "inform him of his refusal to form a new cabinet that is not a government of national unity."
03/29/2005 16:57 GMT