BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon's total budget deficit eased to 19.82 percent of spending in Jan-April 2005 compared to 24.82 percent in the first four months of last year, the finance ministry said on Monday.

The ministry said on its website total Jan-April revenues were 2.195 trillion Lebanese pounds compared to 2.246 trillion pounds in the same period of 2004.

Total expenditure in the first four months of the year were 2.083 trillion Lebanese pounds down from 2.343 trillion in Jan-April 2004.

Lebanon has set a deficit target of around 25 percent in its 2005 budget draft, the latest attempt to control the growth in public debt of around $36 billion and ease the servicing costs that consume most of its revenues.

Debt servicing accounted for 912.141 billion pounds of total expenditure in the first four months of this year compared to 1.226 trillion pounds in the same period of 2004.

Lebanon's parliament has yet to pass the 2005 budget law amid a series of political crises that rocked the country. The cabinet that drew up the budget was replaced last October by a new government that said it would make revisions.

But the February killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri threw Lebanon into crisis and pushed the budget lower down the agenda. Parliamentary elections that ended last week ushered in a new assembly that meets for the first time on Tuesday. (Reuters)