According to Naharnet, the government also approved a motion calling for an extraordinary legislative session by parliament as of January 1, to tackle the amendment bill. This session can last until March 17, 2008

The bill amends the third clause of article 49 of the constitution, which bars the election of senior public employees for president.

The move by the Siniora Government is apparently aimed at cornering Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri into either accepting the constitutional amendment and calling the house to tackle and ratify it, or rejecting the approach and, therefore, appearing as leading an effort to foil Suleiman's election.

Berri has already said that he will not receive the constitutional amendment draft law which the government referred to him on Monday. "The draft law will be written down by an unconstitutional and illegitimate government," Berri told al-Diyar daily in remarks published Monday morning.

He said: "We don't need to amend the constitution if they want to elect (Army Commander) Gen. Suleiman president as article 74 is clear in this matter." Berri stressed that he will keep calling for presidential sessions until an agreement was reached.

Hezbollah-led opposition sources warned Premier Fouad Siniora's government against taking executive decisions. The sources said the "opposition will respond by taking appropriate measures."

In response to a question , Information Minister Ghazi al Aridi told reporters : “We tried to dialogue with Speaker Nabih Berri on several occasions when he was in charge of negotiations on behalf of the opposition , but this got us nowhere . We have to put Lebanon first and for this reason we could no longer wait and accept the presidential void …we had to act and this is what the amendment is all about. “

Sources: Al Bawaba, Ya Libnan, Naharnet

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