BEIRUT, Lebanon - Rival leaders made last-ditch efforts Thursday to find a compromise candidate for Lebanon's presidency with no sign of a solution a day ahead of a constitutional deadline.
Failure to elect a new president on time could lead to a power vacuum, or two rival governments, much like during the last two years of the 1975-90 civil war.
Parliament was scheduled to convene at 1 p.m. Friday to pick a successor for President Emile Lahoud, only 11 hours before his term ends.
Three previous attempts have failed amid a power struggle between the U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and the opposition led by Hezbollah, an ally of Syria and Iran.
Saniora's camp wants an anti-Syrian figure to replace Lahoud, a staunch ally of Damascus, which controlled Lebanon for 29 years until its troops were forced to withdraw in 2005.
Saad Hariri, who heads the anti-Syrian majority in parliament, and opposition leader Michel Aoun, a Christian who is allied with the pro-Syrian Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group and is himself seeking the presidential post, held a rare meeting Wednesday night but failed to break the deadlock.
The meeting followed a telephone call to both leaders by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been leading mediation between the two camps through his foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner.
Aoun met Thursday with Kouchner and Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, who were both in Lebanon. He told reporters the meeting with Hariri did not produce results and insisted he remained the best compromise candidate.
Italian Foreign minister Massimo D'Alema also arrived Thursday to join mediation efforts. France, Spain and Italy are the top contributors to the 13,600-strong U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon which borders Israel.
Pessimism settled over the country as it marked 64 years of independence from France on Thursday.
"The last day before zero-hour: A miracle or power vacuum," read the headline of Lebanon's leading An-Nahar daily.
Al-Mustaqbal daily, owned by Hariri, accused Syria of blocking a compromise through its Lebanese allies.
The controversial Aoun, who has a strong support base among Christians and Shiites, has kept his name in contention for the presidency as other names floated as compromises have been dropped in recent days.
Aoun has kept his name in contention for the presidency as other names touted as compromises have been blocked over recent days.
Accepting Aoun as president would be hard for the Hariri camp. Although he was long an opponent of Damascus, Aoun has sided with Hezbollah throughout Lebanon's political crisis in the past year.
The anti-Syrian majority is threatening to elect a president by a simple majority if no quorum is reached, a move that would likely create turmoil and increase the risk of street violence.
In the absence of a president, the government takes executive power. But Lahoud has vowed not to hand his authority over to Saniora's administration, considering it unconstitutional after all five ministers of the Shiite Muslim community quit a year ago.
Possible scenarios include Lahoud handing over power to the military chiefs, creating a rival government to hand power to or even declaring a state of emergency -- deepening the struggle with Saniora.
