A spokesman for House speaker Nabih Berri said that Friday's session was postponed to Tuesday, Dec. 11, without giving further details.

Lebanon has been without a president since pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud's term expired Nov. 23 as the pro- and anti-Western politicians have been bickering over who would fill the seat and how to go about it amid deep political differences that continue to complicate their negotiations.

After having agreed last week on backing army chief General Michel Suleiman as the compromise presidential candidate, the rivals have focused their discussions on how to first amend the constitution to allow an army general to assume the post.

The Lebanese constitution bars public servants from assuming the presidency – allocated to a Maronite Christian under the country's confessional system – until two years after they have left their posts.

Legislators from the Western-backed majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition converged to parliament Friday following marathon talks that continued to the early hours and resumed with a meeting between Berri, from the opposition, and majority lawmaker Saad Hariri inside the parliament building.

Members from the anti-Syrian March 14 Coalition blamed opposition Christian leader Michel Aoun for adding new obstacles to a consensus on how to amend the constitution, where the two camps are divided on a number of issues, including whether the amendment should come through the cabinet or parliament and the composition of the next government.

But Lebanese sources say a constitutional amendment is not the problem; it's the political issues that have been linked to amending the constitution.

The opposition does not recognize the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, saying it is illegitimate after six opposition ministers withdrew from the cabinet last year. But the government says these ministers did not actually resign and therefore has the right to draft an amendment to the constitution.

The opposition wants the amendment request to come in a petition from 10 MPs from both camps, but refuses to sign the petition until the majority agrees to a host of political demands that concern the names of the next cabinet members and their political agenda.

"Just as there was a consensus on the president, the opposition wants a consensus on the prime minister," said Lebanese political analyst Amin Amouriyeh.

Aoun, who gave up his own presidential candidacy and accepted Suleiman's on condition he serves until the July 2009 legislative elections instead of the full six years, has linked his approval for the new president with a neutral prime minister.

In the complex web of Lebanese politics where hopes ebb and flow, Lebanese analysts contacted by the Middle East Times gave varying perspectives that ranged from pessimistic to optimistic.

Some saw the seventh postponement of the parliament vote as an indication of a new deadlock that would take the negotiations back to square one by abandoning Suleiman's candidacy and finding another presidential nominee – a matter that could take many more weeks in the absence of an alternative on the table.

Nevertheless, postponing the voting session for four days, instead of the usual seven, has given hope to the optimists, who said they believe that Friday's postponement is the last. They expect parliament to convene on Tuesday for two sessions: The first to amend the constitution and the second to elect Suleiman as president.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who has been shuttling between the politicians since Tuesday, was also optimistic as he wound up his visit on Friday.

He told reporters at Beirut airport that he was pleased with the progress made and expected the Lebanese "will have the chance to see a new president" since the adversaries have agreed on Suleiman's candidacy and were working out a mechanism for a constitutional amendment.

Kouchner, whose country is Lebanon's former colonial power, said he was also pleased that a vacant presidential seat has not led to security problems in the country.

Lebanon has been caught in the worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war and the power vacuum caused by the absence of a president was feared to unleash another wave of civil strife.

But unless the politicians agree on filling the president's seat soon and put their differences aside to install a functioning government, the threat of a security collapse cannot be ruled out.