"No agreement"

The Observer newspaper notes:

"Despite mounting international pressure from France and the US for Lebanese parties to elect the army chief of staff, Michel Suleiman, as a consensus president, the speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri, again postponed the planned election until 29 December, amid claims by Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun that negotiations had completely broken down.

'There is no agreement,' said Aoun, who has been representing the Hizbollah-led opposition in the negotiations. 'All lines of dialogue are broken.'"