BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanese Shiite politician Nabih Berri was headed for talks in Shiite Iran Saturday amid tight elections in both countries, his office said.

Berri, who is speaker of the outgoing Lebanese parliament, was due to hold talks with outgoing Iranian President Mohammad Khatami as well as other politicans.

He is due back in Beirut Monday when parliament is formally dissolved after four-stage elections of which the last round will be held Sunday.

Berri already won re-election in the second round two weeks ago. The Shiite alliance of his Amal movement and Hezbollah has 33 seats so far in the 128-member parliament.

Twenty-eight seats are still up for grabs.

The future status of Hezbollah's military wing, which continues to patrol south Lebanon five years after Israel's withdrawal, will be one of the key issues of the new parliament's four-year term.

A UN Security Council resolution passed in September requires it to be disarmed. Christian firebrand Michel Aoun, whose list has already won 21 seats, has backed such a move.

But Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, one of the principals in the main opposition alliance which already has 46 seats, has insisted on continued support for the "resistance".

Iran and Syria are the key backers of Hezbollah although the movement's Tehran representative, Abdullah Safieddin, told AFP in an interview this week that it received no weapons from either government, despite US claims to the contrary.

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