BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon sank deeper into political crisis Friday after anti-Syrian ministers walked out of a cabinet meeting in protest at the presence of pro-Damascus President Emile Lahoud, who is under mounting pressure to resign.

Public disputes between Lahoud and the parliamentary majority seeking to remove him from office aggravated the long-running political deadlock in a country already suffering an economic crisis that has pushed public debt to 38 billion dollars.

The rows seemed to threaten roundtable talks aimed at ending the crisis paralyzing the country since the February 2005 murder of former premier Rafiq Hariri that forced Syria to end its 29-year military presence and political domination of Lebanon.

"Dialogue seems to evolve in a vicious circle... and I fear that the Iranian-Syrian axis is seeking to use Lebanon as a tool" for the two regional powers' strategic gains, said influential MP Walid Jumblatt, a main leader of the parliamentary majority.

The anti-Syrian parliamentary majority accuses Lahoud and other pro-Syrian allies, including the pro-Iranian Lebanese Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah, of seeking to maintain Damascus's clout over Lebanon.

Anti-Syrian Lebanese leaders and UN reports have suggested top-level Syrian involvement in Hariri's murder. Damascus has denied such accusations.

Lebanese leaders shocked audiences at home and abroad twice this week by trading accusations and insults at the Arab summit meeting in Khartoum on Tuesday, and then two days later during a televised cabinet session.

"A Masquerade," read the bold front-page headline of the Ad Diyar newspaper while the Al-Balad daily regretted that Lebanese leaders "revealed their shameful parts live on television."

On Thursday, ministers from the parliamentary majority walked out of a cabinet meeting after a verbal clash with Lahoud that was caught on cameras.

The apparent meltdown followed a public dispute between Lahoud and Prime Minister Fuad Siniora before Arab leaders at the Khartoum summit over a draft resolution pledging to support Lebanese armed groups.

In September 2004, the previous Lebanese parliament under Syrian pressure extended Lahoud's mandate by three years in the face of opposition from a majority of Lebanese and a UN Security Council resolution.

Lahoud has repeatedly refused calls to step down.

Lebanese leaders have however asserted that the next round of roundtable talks would take place as scheduled on Monday, even though analysts and observers believed that the possibility of achieving positive results seemed less likely by the day.

"What the leaders are doing is really childish. They are keeping the country hostage with their disputes when people are working hard to make ends meet," said businesswoman Soha Bassul.

Lebanon's economy has still not fully recovered from the devastation of a 1975-1990 civil war and the country's GDP posted zero growth last year as a result of the political crisis, after surging five percent a year earlier.

An international donors' conference for Lebanon was to have been held at the end of last year but was postponed because of the political crisis after the murder of Hariri and the series of subsequent bomb attacks on other politicians and journalists.

"Politicians are ignoring people's concerns ... when debt servicing costs about 10 million dollars a day, which is an unbearable amount," leading economist Marwan Iskandar told An Nahar newspaper.

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