Beirut: A parliamentary session to elect a Lebanese president has been postponed from today to April 22 amid continued deadlock between rival political leaders, the speaker's office has announced.

"Parliament speaker Nabih Berri has decided to postpone the session to April 22 at noon (1430 IST)," his spokesman Ali Hamdan told AFP yesterday.

The decision marks the 17th time since September that a parliament session to elect a successor to pro-Syrian head of state Emile Lahoud has failed amid a standoff between the Western-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition, backed by Syria and Iran.

The Lebanese presidential crisis is expected to top the agenda in this week's Arab summit in Damascus.

Regional heavyweights Egypt and Saudi Arabia have announced that they will send low-level diplomats to the meeting in retaliation for what they say is Syrian obstruction to the election of a Lebanese president.

Lebanon has been without a president since November, when Lahoud's term ended. The political crisis is the worst since the country's 1975-1990 civil war.

Source : PTI