BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora on Thursday said the political country's crisis was very dangerous, and accused the opposition of threatening democracy in Lebanon.

"What Lebanon is going through is very grave and dangerous, and a way out of this crisis will require enormous effort," he said at an official function.

Pointing the finger of blame at the Hezbollah-led opposition, Siniora said "the main cause of the crisis is that the constitution, the government and democratic institutions have been bypassed," he said.

Dialogue between the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority and the pro-Syrian opposition "must not lead to results which paralyse the constitution and destroy it," Siniora added.

The opposition says Siniora's administration has been illegitimate since the resignation last November of six pro-Damascus cabinet ministers, five of them Shiite, plunging Lebanon deep into political crisis.

The anti-Syrian majority accuses the opposition of endangering the operation of state institutions, especially by preventing parliament from convening to debate the crisis.

On Tuesday parliament's speaker Nabih Berri -- who is also one of the leaders of the opposition -- again refused to convene the legislature while the cabinet remains without several ministers, sparking anger among the majority.

The opposition wants an enlarged cabinet in which it would have a right of veto, a demand rejected by the majority.

When anti-Syrian MPs gathered in parliament on Tuesday to demand the holding of a session to ratify the creation of a court to try suspects in former premier Rafiq Hariri's murder, Berri accused them of trying to sabotage the dialogue between the rival camps.

The main bones of contention between the two sides are the opposition's demand for a veto and the majority's insistence on ratifying the international tribunal to try suspects in the murder of Hariri, who was killed by a massive car bomb in Beirut in February, 2005.

The convention for the tribunal was passed by the government in November, but still needs to be ratified by parliament.

The opposition argues that the cabinet's approval was null and void as it had become illegitimate with the resignation of the pro-Syrian ministers. -AFP