President Lahoud and Premier-Designate Fouad Seniora were seen locked in irremediable discord over a majority government to lead Lebanon out of Syria's orbit as parliament braced for a historic meeting Monday to vote Lebanese Forces commander Samir Geagea out of prison. The Lahoud-Seniora deadlock was dramatized by a Bush administration attack on the pro-Syrian Lebanese President, squarely accusing him of preventing the 'will of the people of Lebanon as expressed in the May-June polls from being carried out.'

The .U.S. has also accused Syria of scheming to 'strangle Lebanon politically and economically' by closing its border to wipe out Lebanon's transit trade with the rest of the Arab World and by using Lahoud as the cat's paw to scuttle Seniora's efforts to put together a new Lebanese cabinet.

Lahoud signaled his discontent with the latest Seniora blueprint during a visit the president made Saturday to his son-in-law Elias Murr at Serhal Hospital in suburban Rabweh, where the outgoing defense minister is recuperating from wounds he suffered in an a car-bomb assassination attempt five day ago, An Nahar reported on Sunday.

The President came out squarely against the 24-member cabinet Seniora submitted to him on Friday, saying "the cabinet formulas presented thus far do not measure up to the standards of confronting the perils surrounding us."

Lahoud insisted that Gen. Aoun and his 21-strong bloc in parliament would be represented in Lebanon's new government and Aoun should be allowed to name his own cabinet ministers, a demand that Seniora and his 105 backers in parliament would not be able to swallow.

Seniora, who is willing to give Aoun a cabinet share that is determined only by the parliamentary majority, not by the president or Aoun himself, said Saturday the cabinet blue print now with the president was final.

"This is the only harmonious lineup with which I can cooperate to cope with threats facing Lebanon. All other formulas have been exhausted," Seniora told reporters after a meeting with Sunni Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Kabbani Saturday.

Seniora has appointments lined up for Sunday with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, Greek Orthodox Beirut archbishop Elias Audeh and Shiite Higher Council chairman Sheikh Abdul Amir Kabalan.

The premier designate said the projected government was backed by Hizbullah and Speaker Berri's Amal Movement as well as the quadripartite March 14 alliance of Saad Hariri, Walid Jumblat, Samir Geagea and Qornet Shahwan. They control, combined, at least 105 legislators in the 128-seat parliament.

No date has yet been set for the decisive meeting at the Baabda Palace between Lahoud and Seniora in which the government would either be formed or scuttled, An Nahar said. It noted that Lahoud might sign the decrees of the new government without any representative of his or of his allies included, leaving the parliamentary majority alone to handle the burden of government. - Naharnet