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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
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| Hariri to step aside in Lebanon | Hariri to step aside in Lebanon |
| (21 minutes later) | |
| Lebanon's Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri says he is to abandon his attempt to form a national unity government and is stepping down. | Lebanon's Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri says he is to abandon his attempt to form a national unity government and is stepping down. |
| Mr Hariri has spent more than 10 weeks trying to assemble a government. | Mr Hariri has spent more than 10 weeks trying to assemble a government. |
| Earlier this week a team he put forward was rejected by Lebanon's opposition, led by Shia radical group Hezbollah. | Earlier this week a team he put forward was rejected by Lebanon's opposition, led by Shia radical group Hezbollah. |
| President Michel Suleiman is expected to consult with parliament in an effort to nominate a new candidate for PM, reports say. | President Michel Suleiman is expected to consult with parliament in an effort to nominate a new candidate for PM, reports say. |
| "Given that my commitment to forming a government of national unity has run up against difficulties that everyone now knows about, I announce that I have informed the president of the republic that I have abandoned trying to form a government," he said in Beirut. | |
| "I hope that this decision will be in the interests of Lebanon and will permit a relaunch of dialogue," the AFP news agency reported him as saying. | |
| Mr Hariri - son of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a car bomb in 2005 - had been trying to form a government since Lebanon held elections in June. | |
| His pro-Western alliance emerged as the largest party, but needed support of other parties to form a government. | |
| On Monday he proposed a 30-seat coalition cabinet to Mr Suleiman. | |
| But the proposal ran into trouble when Hezbollah refused to agree to the make-up and distribution of cabinet posts. |