BEIRUT, Lebanon - After his towering victory in Lebanon's third round of general elections, Christian politician Michel Aoun was gearing up for the last stage in northern Lebanon next Sunday, allied with controversial pro-Syrian MP Suleiman Franjieh.

The surprise success of the former general last Sunday dealt a massive blow to the anti-Syrian opposition in Lebanon, which now may not achieve the majority it will need in the 128-member parliament to give it real political clout.

One hundred seats in Lebanon's house of representatives, where Muslims and Christians are equally represented, have already been distributed in the first three rounds of voting held free of Syria's 29-year-old grip.

As things stand, the anti-Syrian opposition has won 46 seats, the alliance between the Shiite militia Hezbollah and its former rival Amal snatched 33 seats and Aoun 21.

Aoun's score came from 23 seats up for grabs in largely Christian areas in Mount Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, out of a total 58 seats on the penultimate round of polls.

The remaining 28 seats will be fought over in northern Lebanon -- a predominantly Muslim Sunni area.

Aoun will field four candidates on June 19, three of them on a joint ticket with Franjieh, a Christian lawmaker and former interior minister who is a close friend of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Aoun is fielding Gebran Bassil for the Batroun Maronite seat, Salim Al Azar for the Koura Greek Orthodox seat, and Fayez Karam for the Triploi Maronite seat in Franjieh' s 'Popular Will List' in North Lebanon II constituency, and Joseph Al Shahda for the Greek Orthodox seat in North Lebanon I 'Popular Resolve List.'

His Free Patriotic Movement (FPML) will face off the opposition coalition, led by Saad, the son of Sunni former premier Rafiq Hariri, and his anti-Syrian allies -- among them Druze leader Walid Jumblatt -- who took all 19 seats contested in the first round of the elections focused on the capital Beirut.

Saad Hariri, 35, will "spend several days in Tripoli to express support to his followers and allies," a member of the opposition coalition told AFP.

But members of the anti-Syrian Hariri-Jumlatt ticket have aired concern at the potentially unfavorable outcome of the June 19 vote.

"I hope we don't lose the north too," Jumblatt said in the wake of Aoun's surprise victory last Sunday.

"We won't get a majority. The situation is serious," a Christian opposition MP said on condition on anonymity.

But a possible pro-Aoun majority in parliament, which is elected for four years, will not necessarily translate into a unified bloc. Many of the alliances forged by the retired general were purely for electoral purposes.

Aoun, who was kicked out by Syria at the end of Lebanon's civil war in 1990 and found refuge in Paris, met Franjieh in the northern main city of Tripoli on Monday to seal their alliance.

Franjieh hailed the 70-year-old Aoun as a "great leader which whom I will be happy to cooperate."

The two, walking hand in hand, paid a visit to pro-Syrian former premier Omar Karameh, who heads Tripoli's Muslim Sunni community, to urge him to go back on his call to boycott Sunday's polls.

Aoun, who portrays himself as the initiator of Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon last April and waged an aborted "war of liberation" against the Damascus regime before being forced into exile, is at ease with his political alliance.

"This alliance heralds a future cooperation to build a new Lebanon, reform its political system and put an end to rampant corruption," he told reporters in Tripoli.

"Differences no longer have to be," now that Syrian troops have left the country, he added.

Copyright © 1999-2005 Lenanonwire^®.com. All rights reserved.