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.

Visiting British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Wednesday he hoped 2009 would see a comprehensive Middle East peace settlement given changes in the US and Israeli administrations and elections in the region.

`I think 2009 is going to be a very important year,` Miliband told reporters after meeting with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman.

Visiting British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Wednesday he hoped 2009 would see a comprehensive Middle East peace settlement given changes in the US and Israeli administrations and elections in the region.

`I think 2009 is going to be a very important year,` Miliband told reporters after meeting with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman.

BEIRUT, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said on Saturday it was possible for Lebanon's feuding political leaders to elect a new president by a deadline just six days away but warned the situation was 'difficult.'

'I believe that it is possible for Lebanon to have a president next week, my impressions at the end of the day, after having met many leaders of the country, is that an agreement would be possible,' he told reporters at the end of a 24-hour visit.

BEIRUT, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema met Lebanese leaders Saturday, officials said, in a last-minute push to choose consensus candidates for next week's presidential poll in the divided state.

D'Alema, who arrived in Beirut overnight, began a series of meetings with members of the Western-backed ruling coalition and the Syrian-backed opposition still deadlocked ahead of a November 23 deadline to elect a new president.

BEIRUT, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema met Lebanese leaders Saturday, officials said, in a last-minute push to choose consensus candidates for next week's presidential poll in the divided state.

D'Alema, who arrived in Beirut overnight, began a series of meetings with members of the Western-backed ruling coalition and the Syrian-backed opposition who have yet to reach a compromise ahead of a November 23 deadline to elect a new president.

BEIRUT, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema met Lebanese leaders Saturday amid efforts to chose consensus candidates for a presidential poll due next week in the politically divided country.

D'Alema, who arrived in Beirut overnight, began a series of meetings with members of the Western-backed ruling coalition and the Syrian-backed opposition who have yet to reach a compromise ahead of a November 23 deadline to elect a new president.

JERUSALEM, Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) - Israel said on Monday it has received a poignant letter written by an airman who has been missing for more than 20 years, following a rare prisoner swap with Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Ron Arad, a national hero in Israel who has never been officially declared dead, wrote the letter to his wife Tami in 1986, shortly after he was captured in Lebanon during the civil war after ejecting from his fighter-bomber.

WASHINGTON, Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) - A top leader of Lebanon's ruling majority accused Syria and Hezbollah of political killings and disrupting its bid to name a new president, shortly before the process was postponed Monday.

'They can kill four more of us and we will be reduced as a majority,' parliamentarian Walid Jumblatt told CNN news Sunday, alluding to the killing of anti-Syrian MP Antoine Ghanem in September which he blamed on Damascus.

'We won't be able to vote for a free president, a president that will abide by international law and resolutions,' Jumblatt said.

BEIRUT, Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) - Lebanon's parliament speaker on Monday again postponed a special session to elect a president to allow the divided country's feuding political factions time to agree on a consensus candidate.

'The parliament speaker (Nabih Berri) has decided to postpone the session to Monday November 12 for more consultation and agreement over the president, who symbolises the country's unity,' a parliament statment said.