Moussa held separate talks with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Premier Fouad Siniora, parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri, Free Patriotic Movement leader Michael Aoun and former president Amin Gemayel.

Addressing reporters after his talks with Saniora, Moussa said: "we've reached the details, and devils live in details."

However, he said: "we've started solving some difficulties … we need to intensify the effort."

Moussa stressed that Arab backing for his mediation makes its success a "necessity."

"we've reached the point by which Lebanese leaders should start talking to each other," he added.

Leaders of the Majority March 14 coalition that backs the Siniora government and heads of the political organizations allied in the March 8 anti-government camp have not been in direct contact since Dec. 1, when the Hezbollah-led opposition staged an open-ended sit in to topple the cabinet.

Sources close to Moussa said the Arab League official would hold a news conference Saturday morning, after which he would leave Lebanon, putting an end to the second phase of his effort. He was originally planning to reveal the details in a press conference on Friday afternoon.

However, he would return to Beirut after the holidays' season to resume his mediation aimed at finding a settlement to the ongoing conflict between the majority government and its opponents.

Moussa on Thursday said Syrian President Bashar Assad gave his full support to the Arab League mediation to end the crippling political impasse.
"We are moving toward reaching a Lebanese reconciliation," Moussa said after meeting with Assad. He did not elaborate.

Moussa's visit to Lebanon was his second in less than a week amid plans by Hezbollah and its allies to escalate its open-ended street protests against the Siniora government.

"I feel relieved," Moussa told reporters. "What is important is to salvage the Arab world from the woes of divisions and threats of what we are seeing in the region."

Assad "supports my efforts, the initiative I am making and the efforts of the Arab League in this regard," Moussa said.

Syria was for decades the powerbroker in Lebanon until public outcry over the February 2005 slaying of former premier Rafik Hariri led to the exit of Syrian troops months later.

Lebanon has "a problem of multiple dimensions, whether the government of national unity or the tribunal", Moussa said, referring to the U.N. tribunal Siniora's government is trying to help establish to try suspects in the assassination of Hariri and related crimes.

An initial U.N. probe implicated high-ranking Syrian and Lebanese officials in the Beirut seafront bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others, but Assad has denied any involvement.

Picture: Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa speaking to reporters. Former PM Rafik Hariri's poster is in the background

Sources, Naharnet, Ya Libnan