Lebanon's parliamentary majority coalition is expected to choose a prime minister today to head a new cabinet that will be formed as part of an agreement ending 18 months of political conflict, politicians said.
The majority is expected to nominate its leader, Saad al-Hariri, or Fouad Siniora, the existing prime minister, to lead the new cabinet in which the Hizbullah-led opposition is guaranteed effective veto power.
The assasination of Mr Hariri's father Rafik al-Hariri in February 2005 plunged Lebanon into more than three years of crisis.
President Michel Suleiman, the former army chief confirmed head of state yesterday, will formally appoint the candidate named by the majority of MPs.
Newly elected President Michel Suleiman reviews troops today
Under Lebanon's complex power-sharing system, the president is always Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of parliament a Shia Muslim.
Mr Suleiman, who was elected by parliament, moved into the presidential palace today, taking up an official residence that has stood empty since November because of the crisis.
A military band played the national anthem as Mr Suleiman, who headed the army for a decade, walked on a red carpet into the Baabda Palace which has been empty since Emile Lahoud, a close ally of Syria, left office.
The conflict between the US-backed ruling alliance, which has struggled against Syrian influence in Lebanon, and the opposition, led by the Damascus- and Tehran-backed Hizbullah, was brought to an end last week by a Qatari-mediated deal.
The Doha agreement defused a crisis that had caused the worst civil strife since Lebanon's 1975-90 war, including fighting this month which killed 81 and ended in a military victory for Hezbollah over its ruling alliance rivals.