Sheikh Abdel Amir Kabalan, the deputy president of the Higher Shiite Council, urged on Sunday President Emile Lahoud to issue a general amnesty for wanted people who have been sentenced in absentia to harsh sentences, Beirut's leftist daily As Safir reported Monday. He said the first job that the new government should do under the extended mandate of President Lahoud is to issue a general amnesty law. "I call for doing as quickly as possible a positive act towards the many wanted people ... The state should open the way and form a court in Zahleh to investigate the issues of the wanted people and to lighten the harsh sentences they received in absentia," Kabalan was quoted as saying.

"There should not be wanted people in Lebanon. The state should be more forgiving and should care better about the affairs and the problems of the people and the society," he said. He also called for a new government made up of honest and hard working ministers dedicated to serving the public interest.