BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon's deeply divided political leaders on Friday delayed until May 16 crucial talks on the future of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, amid global pressure on Damascus to stop meddling in Lebanese affairs.

Pro-Syrian parliament speaker Nabih Berri announced the delay at the end of a sixth round of talks between Christian and Muslim leaders, which had been slated as the last meeting to discuss the longstanding crisis over the presidency.

After the last round of negotiations earlier this month, the leaders had decided that they would discuss calls for Lahoud to resign one last time on April 28 before moving on to the issue of disarming the Lebanese Shiite militant Hezbollah.

The talks aimed at ending Lebanon's political paralysis are being held with Syria back in the international firing line, facing a new UN resolution over its fraught ties with Lebanon and a US asset freeze against suspects in the murder of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri.

Along with the disarming of Hezbollah, Lahoud's fate is one of the most contentious issues at the talks which started late Friday at the parliament building, with the Damascus protege at loggerheads with the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority.

US President George W. Bush's ambassador in Beirut, Jeffrey Feltman, entered the fray on Thursday, calling for Lahoud to quit and expressing hope that "lingering Syrian interference in Lebanon -- both direct and through its proxies -- will end."

Lebanon has been in political turmoil since the February 2005 murder of Hariri and the later withdrawal of Syrian troops after 29 years on Lebanese soil.

The initial euphoria that followed the pullout quickly died out as the country sank in political disputes, including the issue of Lahoud's term which had been extended by three years in late 2004 under Syrian pressure.

Bush on Tuesday ordered an asset freeze for suspects found to be involved in Hariri's assassination, in which several top Syrian and Lebanese officials have been implicated by a UN probe.

France also said it was preparing a new UN Security Council resolution to urge Syria to answer Lebanese calls for better ties, which have deteriorated markedly since Hariri's killing and elections which brought an anti-Syrian majority to power.

But the parliamentary majority has since suffered rifts, and anti-Syrian Christian leader Samir Geagea admited that Lahoud's departure "will require a miracle."

After a meeting with Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, the head of the Maronite Catholic community among whom the Lebanese president is traditionally chosen, Geagea said the anti-Syrian camp believes that four persons could be fit to replace Lahoud.

Three of them are from the anti-Syrian camp and the fourth is Christian leader Michel Aoun, who has defected from the majority coalition to join the pro-Syrian camp.

Aoun told As-Safir newspaper on Friday that the failure of the parliamentary majority in removing Lahoud should lead to a change of government.

Lebanese leaders are also divided over the disarmament of the military wing of Hezbollah, whose fighters were widely credited for bringing about Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000 after 22 years of occupation.

The group has vowed to carry on a guerrilla war to free the disputed Shebaa Farms border area, which Israel seized from Syria along with the Golan Heights in 1967 but is claimed by Lebanon with Damascus's approval.

In five rounds of national talks since March 2, leaders reached agreement on the establishment of an international court to judge those responsible for Hariri's killing.

Lebanese leaders have also agreed to dismantle Palestinian military bases in Lebanon, to work to normalise relations with the former powerbroker Syria and to define borders between the two countries.

But the last three points have yet to be implemented as they require the cooperation of Damascus, which has rejected calls to define the border in the Shebaa Farms area before Israel pulls out of the territory.

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