BEIRUT, Lebanon - Rival Lebanese leaders gave conflicting assessments on Monday of how talks aimed at defusing Lebanon's worst political crisis in 16 years are progressing.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a close Syria ally who had called the "national dialogue conference," said progress was being made and vowed to stay the course, but fierce anti-Syrian leader Walid Jumblatt said the talks were stalled.

Muslim and Christian leaders, both pro- and anti-Syrian, began talks at a round table in parliament last week in the largest such gathering since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.

"Dialogue is advancing ... it will remain open so that issues are resolved. Failure is forbidden," Berri told reporters after the latest round of talks between various politicians.

"We will always face obstacles ... and attempts to derail (the process) if intentions are good," he said. "I tell you now that progress has been made on several topics."

Only few hours earlier, Jumblatt said from Washington that the talks, focused on the fate of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud and ties with Syria, were deadlocked because the sides disagree on disarming Damascus-backed militant group Hizbollah.

Jumblatt, campaigning to have parliament vote Lahoud out of office, said he was lobbying the United States to press Syria harder into accepting the exit of what he called its "puppet."

The Druze leader attended the talks' opening in Beirut last week but then flew to Washington, leaving a top aide to represent him at the talks.

STREET PROTESTS

Jumblatt, due to have his second meeting in two weeks with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said the anti-Syrian coalition would hold mass rallies if the talks made no headway.

He said the coalition had refused to accept a compromise that would have removed Lahoud but allowed Hizbollah to keep its arms for its Syrian-backed campaign to fight Israel. Other anti-Syrian leaders had denied any such compromise had been discussed.

"If the process of dialogue will stay in deadlock, we have to stick to the street," Jumblatt, speaking in English, told an audience at the Brookings Institution think tank.

Lahoud says he will serve out his mandate, which ends next year.

Lebanese street protests and U.S.-led international pressure following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri last year forced Syria to end its decades-old occupation of its smaller neighbor.

Jumblatt's key ally Saad al-Hariri, son of the slain premier, had earlier sent a positive signal from the talks and called for patience.

"There are lots of positives from the dialogue ... No one should rush us ... we need enough time to reach an agreement on all the points," he said.

The extension of Lahoud's term in 2004, demanded by Syria, plunged Lebanon into its worst political crisis since the end of the war and set Damascus on collision course with the international community. (Reuters)