To have a complete experience of ANSAmed webportal contents script must be enabled on your browser.

To enable the script on Internet Explorer:
1.Select 'Tools' from the top menu
2.Choose 'Internet Options'
3.Click on the 'Security' tab
4.Click on 'Custom Level'
5.Scroll down until you see section labled 'Scripting'
6.Under 'Active Scripting', select 'Enable' and click OK

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, JUNE 24 - Confessional strife in Lebanon has reached "the limit of suicide", President Michel Suleiman told a meeting of the country's top 15 Christian and Moslem religious leaders he hosted as prelude to holding a national dialogue "before it is too late.". "Let us not turn (political) conflicts into confessional and sectarian disputes," Suleiman told his invitees at the Presidential palace where they discussed sectarian violence that has recently rocked Lebanon and killed more than 70 people. On the eve of the "religious summit", army troops deployed near the northern port city of Tripoli to end battles between Sunni supporters of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority and Alawite Moslems close to the opposition Shiite Hezbollah group, backed by Syria and Iran. At least eight civilians were killed in the clashes, the fiercest since the Sunni-Shiite confrontation in the eastern Bekaa Valley earlier this month that killed three people. These urban mini-wars were in repercussion to the military blitz Hezbollah had waged against its Sunni foes in Beirut last month in which more than 60 people lost their lives. Hezbollah's offensive which was about to rekindle the 1975-90 civil war prompted top political leaders to sign an agreement in Qatar on May 21, ending 18 months of constitutional stalemate. The accord stipulated the formation a "unity government", but Premier-designate Fuad Siniora is at pains to satisfy the hunger of rival camps for key ministerial portfolios. "Politicians have to assume their national responsibility even if this required making sacrifices and concessions," said Suleiman before offering a lunch to honour Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints who beatified a Lebanese priest in Beirut last Sunday. Siniora and House Speaker Nabih Berri were present at the banquet after which they held talks with Catholic Maronite Suleiman to see a way out of the government crisis. In a final statement, the religious leaders called for maintaining "peace and coexistence" between Lebanon's religious communities, condemning "radicalism and the use of weapons for political objectives or as means to settle political disputes." The clergymen urged for the resumption of dialogue between the Hezbollah-led opposition and the pro-government parties under the patronage of President Suleiman. (ANSAmed).