BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon's Prime Minister Designate Fouad Siniora said on Thursday he would seek to form a government from 24 ministers who were not members of parliament or political parties.

Siniora, member of a coalition of forces that pushed for Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon, made the announcement after talks with President Emile Lahoud confirmed that squabbles had thwarted approval on a proposed government representative of the main political groups.

The new government would be the first since Syria ended its 29-year military presence in Lebanon in April.

"I agreed with his excellency the president that we go ahead with preparing a government line-up from outside parliament, from people who have political know-how but are not members of parties," Siniora told reporters.

He said the agreement on the extra-parliamentarian government was reached during 35 minutes of talks with the president at mid-morning, scrapping a 30-minister cabinet lineup that was vetoed by Lahoud, Gen. Aoun, Hizbullah and Speaker Berri's Amal Movement.

The PM-designate had presented a 30-member government to Lahoud, a close ally of Damascus, on Tuesday.

But strong reservations by Christian leader Michel Aoun and a pro-Syrian Shi'ite Muslim coalition over their representation in the cabinet made Lahoud's approval impossible.

Aoun accused Seniora and majority leader Saad Hariri of reneging on an accord they worked out with him during his Koreitem visit on Sunday that his 21-strong parliamentary bloc would take four active portfolios if the new cabinet is made up of 24 ministers, adding a state minister without portfolio if the cabinet is enlarged to 30 ministers.

Aoun told a new conference at his Rabieh Mansion Wednesday that he would not let the majority to strip the minorities from the so-called 'subversive one third' in the Council of Ministers.

There is a game to control the two thirds," Aoun told An Nahar, asserting that "there is a conversion of interests, not an accord, between us and Hizbullah and Amal. Amongst us we constitute one third of the nation. Nevertheless we are not allowed to get the subversive one third of the cabinet."

The government had been expected to be dominated by anti-Syrian politicians, most of whom turned against Syria after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri on February 14, which pressured Syrian forces to quit Lebanon. (With Reuters)