BEIRUT, Lebanon - A senior Arab League official is due to arrive in Beirut on Monday to start consultations with the various Lebanese political factions aimed at resolving the current crisis in the country, foreign ministry sources said.

General Hisham Youssef, chef de cabinet of league Secretary General Amr Mussa, is due to visit Beirut for 48 hours.

Youssef will during his visit meet with House Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Fouad Seniora, and representatives from the Shiite Lebanese movement Hezbollah who are leading the opposition against the government.

'This visit is to prepare the ground for the upcoming visit of Amr Mussa who is expected in Lebanon in the coming 10 days,' the sources said.

Mussa is expected to visit Moscow on Monday where he will meet with Russian president Vladmir Putin, the sources said.

The Arab League leader in December mediated between the Lebanese opposition and loyalists of Seniora's Western-backed government, but his efforts failed to broker a compromise to end the political crisis engulfing the country.

The opposition led by Hezbollah has since December 1 been staging an open-ended strike to push the cabinet to resign and to form a national unity government. The demand as been rejected by the anti- Syrian majority.

Since then the country has witnessed several anti-government protests, a general strike and student riots which led to the killing of six people and the wounding of more than 200. (DPA)