The draft law was proposed by Legislator Boutros Harb, who is among a group of lawyers representing the Tueni family, and signed by legislators Ghassan Tueni, Ghassan Mokhaiber and Robert Ghanem.

Harb has repeatedly complained about the delay in the appointment of the Council members, saying President Emile Lahoud was obstructing Gebran's investigation by refusing to sign a decree for the formation of a new council. The term of the former council ended in November.

Currently any appointment must be approved by the pro-Syrian president. But the draft law transfers the authority of selecting the Council's members from Justice Minister Charles Rizk, a protégé of Lahoud, to the five Council members themselves.

The executive authority, including Lahoud, will only have to issue the decree drafted and finalized by the Council's five members but it will have no right to reject any of the newly appointed judges.

All parliamentary blocs attending Monday's extraordinary session of parliament, including Gen. Michel Aoun's bloc, voted in support of the draft law.

The draft law will come into effect after being published in the official gazette five days from now.

The Parrliament was basically convened to approve the 2005 state budget, which was passed at the end of the day. But politics inevitably penetrated the debate, which witnessed some sharp exchange between rival parliamentary groups competing in the by-election in Baabda-Alley district for the seat vacated by the death last week of MP Edmond Naim.

According to a report by the leftist daily As Safir,  House Speaker Nabih Berri proposed that the government and parliament issue a joint statement declaring that "Hizbullah isn't a militia" in order to resolve the two-month-old government crisis. Such a statement hopefully will relieve Lebanon of the obligation of disarming Hizbullah and wave the way for five Shiite ministers to return to the cabinet after a two-month boycott.

U.N. Security Council resolution 1559 calls on Lebanon to disarm all militia, a reference to Hizbullah and Palestinian guerrilla groups. The proposal was put to Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and Hizbullah leading MP Mohammed Raad and Marwan Hamadeh, socialist MP Walid Jumblat's ally, and none of them showed any objection, according to the paper. It was not clear what happened to it then.

The government crisis erupted last month when the five Shiite ministers, representing Hizbullah and Amal Movement, suspended their membership in protest against the government majority decision calling for the formation of an international tribunal to try suspects in Hariri's murder and other crimes.

A report by the daily Al Mutaqbal, mouthpiece of the Future Movement of MP Saad Hariri, said Tuesday that a mediation tour by Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman to Damascus and Beirut had been delayed pending further consultations. The tour was decided during last week's visit to Cairo by Prime Minister Siniora. Lt. Gen. Suleiman was scheduled to begin his mission on Tuesday. AL MUSTAQBAL quoted Egyptian sources as saying Suleiman would not be leaving yet "as the Syrians have not yet reacted to Suleiman's visit."

In an article published in An Nahar Tuesday, reporter Nichola Nassif said that Suleiman's mission separates between the U.N. investigation into Hariri's assassination and the tension between Lebanon and Syria. Suleiman would pave the way for the next stage of the "Arab mediation effort". If he succeeds, then Saudi Arabia would step in and carry on with the mediation, the reporter said. (With Naharnet, MER)