Lebanon 'to cancel' Hizbullah measures

Lebanon's cabinet is likely to cancel measures that angered the Hizbullah movement and triggered the worst internal conflict …

Lebanon's cabinet is likely to cancel measures that angered the Hizbullah movement and triggered the worst internal conflict since the country's civil war, political sources said.

"You can say it's a done deal, but we're waiting for the cabinet meeting," one political source said shortly before Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who is supported by the United States, convened his ministers for talks.

Other political sources said later the cabinet was also debating the timing of any announcement of the cancellations.

Rescinding a ban on Iranian-backed Hizbullah's communications network and the sacking of Beirut airport's security chief, who is close to the group, is one of Hizbullah's demands to lift its blockade of the airport and its campaign of civil disobedience.

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It would also be a first step towards easing a broader 18-month-long standoff between Prime Minister Fouad Siniora 's government and opposition forces that has left Lebanon without a president since November.

At least 81 people have been killed since violence broke out on May 7th following the cabinet decisions against Hizbullah, which routed its rivals in six days of fighting and briefly seized control of parts of Beirut.

US President George W. Bush, in Jerusalem to celebrate the anniversary of Israel's founding in 1948, accused Iran today of using the Islamist Shia Hizbullah to destabilise the “young democracy” of Lebanon.

Mr Siniora earlier met an Arab League mission that is trying to mediate a solution to Lebanon's standoff.