Headed by prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Mohammed Hassan al-Amin, a new Shiite group is expected to see the light Thursday with the purpose of breaking the current hegomony of  Hezbollah and Amal Movement over Lebanon's 1.2 million-strong Shiite community..

Scheduled to convene at the Amliyeh Scool in West Beirut, a meeting grouping a number of leading Shiite intellectuals, politicians, religious leaders and dignitaries are setting their sight on creating a new Shiite bloc that would put an end to the dual monopoly exercised by Hezbollah and Amal.

Lebanon's media highlighted that the envisage group intends to include in its declaration a clause praising the Islamic resiatnce, calling for protecting it, but requiring it to refrain from playing any role outside Lebanon's borders or outside the Lebanese consensus.

Evidently in contrast with Hezbollah's declared startgey of keeping their arms intact untill a time when Lebanon is no more in peril, the envigaed delaration is ecpected not to be looked at favorably by Hezbollah.

Infromed sources said Hezbolah and Amal are planning to besiege the rally in an attempt to impede the formation of the new group, which, among other things, seeks to propogate the notion that not all Shiites are loyalists, and that many Shiites do share the slogans undersored by the opposition.

Last year, a new Shiite group took shape under the name of the "Shiite Muslim Elite Grouping," comprising prominent intellectual, professional and business figures to rival Amal and Hizbullah. The grouping held a large meeting last July at the home of a prominent Shiite, Dr. Mahmoud Hoda Ramadan in the mountain village of Souk al-Gharb. The meeting was attended by the cultural attache at the Iranian embassy, Mohammed Hassan Hashemi and some 400 personalities.

Earlier in August last yaer, Issam Abu Darwish, a prominent Shiite businessman who is close to Berri, also proclaimed the rise of another new Shiite group called al-Kiyan (entity). Abu Darwish, also a close friend of former President Amin Gemayel, made the announcement from his home in Musseileh, which is also Berri's residential town in the south.

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