Visiting British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Wednesday he hopes 2009 will usher in changes around the globe that will bring about a comprehensive Middle East peace settlement.

`I think 2009 is going to be a very important year,` Miliband told reporters as he wrapped up a brief visit to Lebanon that included meetings with President Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.

`It is the year of change globally because there is a new American president, there will be a new Israeli government, there will be elections in Lebanon and ... in Iran as well.`

He urged countries in the region to work seriously toward peace through dialogue rather than violence.

`Instability in the Middle East has spread and will spread if it is not contained,` he warned.

Miliband said he had discussed with Lebanese leaders legislative elections planned next spring and the importance of going through with these polls.

`The world will be watching to see all parties respect the democratic process and ensure that politics and not violence are the basis for the decisions about Lebanon`s future,` he said.

`So often in history Lebanon has been the victim of other people`s conflicts and we will know that there is a true prospect of lasting peace in the Middle East when Lebanon is no longer the victim of other people`s conflicts.`

Miliband arrived in Beirut on Tuesday following a stop in Damascus where he held talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the first British politician to do so since 2001.

He said there was no reason for alarm among anti-Syrian parties in Lebanon over Britain`s apparent rapprochement with Damascus.

`I don`t think people should be concerned about dialogue when it is conducted on an honest and serious basis,` he said. `What I say publicly about the choices that Syria and other countries face and the responsibilities that Syria and other countries have is what I say privately to President Assad and to other leaders.`

Syria has faced diplomatic isolation since the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri in a massive car bomb. It denies any role in the killing.

It has also been shunned by the West because of its ties with Iran, the Palestinian group Hamas and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, considered a terrorist organisation by the US and Britain.

Miliband said Britain made a distinction between the military and political wings of Hezbollah, which has one minister in the current government.

`It is right to draw that distinction and to emphasise that those who use violence for political ends cannot expect to have the support of the international community,` he said.

Earlier in his tour of the region, Miliband also travelled to Israel and the West Bank, holding meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

He last visited Beirut in June following the election of Sleiman and the formation of a national unity government which put an end to an 18-month crippling political crisis that had brought the country close to civil war.