French FM briefed in Beirut over govt. formation track

Kouchner: Netanyahu's threats against Lebanon not serious, Hariri won't visit Damascus before announcing his govt. lineup

Syrian FM reiterates welcome to Saudi monarch's expected visit, stresses ties with Arabia good and don't need reconciliation

Kouchner says notified by Assad that Syria had no requests about Lebanon govt. formation

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner reiterated Friday that the Lebanese should form their own government and that Paris would not interfere in the country's internal affairs. "We will not interfere in cabinet formation. It is not our mission," Kouchner said following talks with President Michel Suleiman at Baabda presidential palace.

Kouchner, who arrived in Beirut Thursday, said some issues were "making progress in the Middle East region - except for the Palestinian-Israeli track."

He added: "I think things are better in Lebanon. In the region, countries like Syria and Saudi Arabia are meeting and there is rapprochement."

Following the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, French-Syrian ties deteriorated considerably. But in 2008 ties were revived following a visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, newly elected at the time, to Syria.

Asked about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's latest threats against Lebanon, the FM said: "I am not worried" about them.

Netanyahu said last week, that "we consider the Lebanese Cabinet a sovereign entity, and any attack launched from Lebanese territory against Israel is by the government and its approval."

The Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah is represented in the Lebanese parliament and is expected to have at least two ministers in the new national unity cabinet which Premier Saad Hariri is working on forming.

Kouchner earlier met with Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh, who said in a statement that he told his French counterpart about continuous Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty.

Kouchner also held talks with Premier Saad Hariri, and was scheduled to meet later Friday with Hezbollah MP Mohammed Raad.

Kouchner said after meeting with Hariri that there were still problems between Lebanon and Syria. But they have to solve them and France would be glad to help if asked for mediation.

"I don't think that the Syrians have to facilitate formation of a cabinet. This is an internal mission that Hariri has to carry out," he added.

Hariri who was appointed earlier this month a prime minister is still struggling to form a national unity government that will include all the Lebanese rival factions.

Syria was Lebanon's powerbroker until Hariri's assassination. Syria was widely blamed by Hariri's followers of being behind his assassination, a charge Damascus vehemently denies.

Hariri's assassination caused a local and international outcry, prompting Syria to end its 30-year military presence in its smaller neighbor on April 2005.

Touching on the Iranian issue, Kouchner urged the Iranian authorities to release French academic Clotilde Reiss who was arrested for allegedly taking part in opposition protests after last month's disputed presidential vote.

Kouchner said during a Damascus visit on Sunday that Syria agrees Lebanon should be allowed to form a new government without outside interference.

Both Damascus and Paris believe "it is up to the Lebanese to organize their government" following their elections in June won by a Western-backed camp, he said after a meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"It is up to the Lebanese parties which I met, including Hezbollah, to agree under the leadership of prime minister-designate Saad Hariri," said Kouchner, who also held talks last week in Beirut including with Syrian-backed Hezbollah.

"There is a new spirit in Lebanon. There is a will to set up a national unity government as soon as possible," he said.

Kouchner had pointed out in Beirut that disagreements within the Israeli government are preventing a plan to stop the building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

The Lebanese daily newspaper an-Nahar said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner made the comments to officials in Beirut during a visit Friday, the Israeli Web site Ynetnews.com reported.

An-Nahar reported Kouchner as saying France and the United States support an end to settlement building in the occupied West Bank, but "central pillars of the Israeli government" are in disagreement on the matter, complicating the efforts and preventing the drafting of a united stance on the issue.

Kouchner reportedly said U.S. President Barack Obama has given Israel a six-month grace period to respond to his call for an end to the West Bank settlements, adding that the possibility of a regional peace conference to be held in Moscow in coming months has been ruled out, Ynetnews reported.

In Damascus, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said a setting a date for an expected visit by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia to Syria would "take place through the diplomatic channels later," noting that there is "no Syrian-Saudi reconciliation because there good Syrian-Saudi relations and exchange of visits at the highest levels between the two countries".

Saudi Arabia has named a new ambassador to Syria after leaving the post vacant for a year, in a sign of warming relations between the two Middle East countries, Saudi media said Tuesday.

Abdullah al-Ayfan, previously Saudi Arabia's ambassador in South Korea, has been appointed Riyadh's envoy in Damascus, Saudi newspapers reported.

The move is a new sign of rapprochement between the two capitals after relations soured following the allegedly Syrian-linked 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Hariri, who was close to the Saudi monarchy. Damascus has denied any link.

Riyadh was also unhappy about Damascus's warm relations with Saudi arch-rival Iran and their support for the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.

Diplomats in Riyadh say the Saudis have viewed approvingly Damascus's apparent non-interference in Lebanon's recent elections, which saw Hariri's son, Saad Hariri, named prime minister.

Another sign of approval was the visit of Saudi King Abdullah's son Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah to Damascus on June 29 to meet Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Saudi sources say a meeting between Assad and the Saudi king is in the works, though it might not take place until after Hariri completes the process of forming a government, a complex task that involves satisfying both his allies and his Hezbollah-led rivals.