BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanese leaders resumed their drive Wednesday to break a long-running political deadlock, with the fate of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud heading the agenda.

The chairman of the roundtable bringing together the country's political and religious leaders, parliament speaker Nabih Berri, told reporters a consensus had not been reached and the talks would resume next week.

"This subject (Lahoud) was discussed in depth and in all its aspects. Everyone expressed themselves frankly. But there needs to be more study and we have agreed to adjourn the debate until next Monday," Berri said.

Lahoud, who has been under mounting pressure from the anti-Damascus parliamentary majority to resign, repeated on Saturday that he would stand his ground.

"If I quit now, it might be thought that I was a traitor, or that I had violated the constitution," he said.

The question of Lahoud's future, along with UN demands for the disarmament of Hezbollah, continued to divide the participants at the talks, which were resuming after an eight-day break.

"Our belief is that the problem is not in the presidency but in the way that the country is governed," said the deputy head of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, rejecting again that the Shiite militant group would back Lahoud's departure.

On March 12, the forum struck an accord on normalising ties with former powerbroker Syria that had been thrown into turmoil by the February 2005 assassination of Lebanon's ex-prime minister Rafiq Hariri.

"Participants want relations between Lebanon and Syria to be as equals, based on the establishment of diplomatic relations and embassies and demarcating Lebanese-Syrian frontiers," said Berri.

Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has been tasked with holding talks with Syria, centred on the disputed Shebaa Farms sector where the Lebanese, Syrian and Israeli borders meet.

Lebanon wants an official demarcation of its border with Syria, which pulled troops out of its smaller neighbour last April after a 29-year military presence.

But it has decided to await the results of an Arab summit being held next week in Khartoum that could advance the healing process between Beirut and Damascus, which a UN probe has implicated in the Hariri murder.

A UN report released Tuesday called for the establishment of a mixed tribunal involving Lebanese and international judges to take up the Hariri case.

"Establishment of a mixed tribunal would best balance the need for Lebanese and international involvement in the work of the tribunal," said the report issued by UN chief Kofi Annan.

It said Lebanese authorities believe that for security reasons the court should be established outside Lebanon, which has been rocked by a wave of attacks against prominent anti-Syrian politicians and journalists since the Hariri killing.

The economic crisis in Lebanon, whose public debt amounts to a whopping 38 billion dollars, is not officially on the conference agenda but it has been making inroads.

The main parties in the parliamentary majority, headed by Saad Hariri, the slain premier's son, and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, want the forum to tackle the issue of economic reforms.

Siniora on Monday briefed European Union foreign ministers in Brussels on his programme of privatisations aimed at spurring investments and growth.

EU External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner hailed the dialogue among Lebanese leaders and the proposed reforms as the best way forward.

The dialogue was "a very good base" for progress on the political and economic fronts, she said.

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