BEIRUT, 19 April 2005 — Lebanon’s Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati pledged yesterday to hold a crucial general election on schedule in May as demanded by the international community and the anti-Syrian opposition.

Mikati said after a first day of talks with Parliament members on forming a new government that he would put together a Cabinet to supervise the poll “as soon as possible”.

Mikati, a telecoms tycoon with close business and political ties to Syria, has under two weeks to form a Cabinet, win a confidence vote in Parliament and draft and steer through the assembly an electoral law if the polls are to be held on time.

“The main task for this new government is to pass an electoral law and hold the elections within the constitutional timetable,” Mikati told reporters.

“Once the government is formed we will carry out all necessary procedures to hurry holding the elections,” he said.

The United States, the European Union and the United Nations are leading international calls for the elections to take place next month as Lebanon’s best way out of its worst political crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war.

A presidential statement quoted US Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman as saying after talks with President Emile Lahoud that the United States strongly supported the nomination of Mikati and hoped he would form a government as soon as possible.

“I have told President Lahoud that the USA wants to see parliamentary elections taking place on time, especially that they are for the interest of the Lebanese people,” Feltman was quoted as saying. His visits to Lahoud have been rare since last September, when the United States opposed a Syrian-inspired extension of Lahoud’s term by three years.

The disparate anti-Syrian opposition, which surprisingly supported Mikati’s nomination last week as a compromise, hinted it could be ready to back his government or even join it if its demands were met.

Opposition MPs said after talks with Mikati that the Cabinet should promise to hold elections as soon as possible and sack or suspend the pro-Syrian chiefs of the security services.

The opposition is keen on swift elections to capitalize on a wave of public sympathy after the Feb. 14 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Loyalists believe delaying the elections would show cracks in the opposition that would improve pro-Syrians’ chances of retaining power.

A former economy minister, Basil Fuleihan, who was badly burned in the blast that killed Hariri, died from his injuries at a Paris hospital yesterday, government officials said. His death brought to 21 the number of people killed in the attack.

Mikati said he would seek a small Cabinet of ministers who preferably are not running in the election. He said he would meet Lahoud today to discuss the Cabinet.

Elections should be called at least a month before they are due to start. Lebanon usually holds polls over several days in different parts of the country.

Parliament’s four-year term expires on May 31, and any new government should hold at least the first round before then.

Lebanon has had no government since Feb. 28, when Prime Minister Omar Karami quit in the face of large street protests against his government and its Syrian backers after Hariri’s killing, which many Lebanese blamed on Syria. Karami was later reappointed but failed to form a Cabinet.

Syria, whose forces entered Lebanon in 1976, has dominated its smaller neighbor since the end of the civil war. Those forces are now leaving Lebanon to end the Syrian military and intelligence presence by April 30, as promised after international pressure and Lebanese protests.