Hizbollah Secretary General Shaikh Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address on Wednesday night that the deadlock over electing a president in Lebanon would continue unless a national unity government is formed and the opposition is granted a veto on policy.

He made the point that since both the ruling bloc and the opposition agree to nominate army chief Michel Suleiman as president, the shape of a new government is the issue holding up the election.

A parliamentary session to elect Lebanon's president was postponed for the eleventh time on December 28, with feuding factions refusing to agree on a constitutional amendment and the shape of a future government. The national assembly is set to meet again on January 12.  The government has not been in any hurry to capitulate to opposition demands. Mediation undertaken by the Arab League, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and France to resolve the crisis, caused by the withdrawal of Hizbollah ministers from the cabinet at the end of 2006, have failed.  He accused Israel of being behind the campaign of assassinations of Lebanese political figures which began with the murder of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri.