BEIRUT, Lebanon - A notorious anti-Syrian warlord imprisoned for 11 years said in his first jailhouse interview that Lebanon should never again return to the bloody rivalries that pitched it into civil war.

Speaking from behind a glass partition, Samir Geagea told the London-based Al Hayat daily in an interview published Thursday that dialogue - and not bloody confrontation - would be the language of disagreement in the future.

Geagea is preparing to leave prison after being granted amnesty this week. He has been held since April 1994, mostly in solitary confinement in an underground cell at the Defense Ministry.

But even as Geagea prepared for freedom, Iranian state-run television reported Thursday that Iran plans to file a lawsuit against the Christian warlord over the kidnapping of four Iranian diplomats in Beirut in 1982.

Geagea hasn't read a newspaper since his arrest, and up until the amnesty, he was not allowed to watch television or listen to the radio, he told Al Hayat.

Geagea led the powerful Christian militia, the Lebanese Forces, during the 1975-90 civil war. He was arrested and the Lebanese Forces outlawed after a church bombing killed 10 people.

He was acquitted of the bombing but convicted to three life sentences for the assassination of political rivals in the civil war, including the bombing of a helicopter that killed then-Prime Minister Rashid Karami in 1987.

"Dialogue should be the only language between the Lebanese for solving their political and economic problems," Geagea was quoted as saying. "There is no going back to the past. Any rivalry in the future should take place using democratic means."

Geagea called on Lebanese politicians to work on building "an independent, modern state within a democratic system that guarantees rights and freedoms."

Lebanon's newly elected parliament approved an amnesty motion Monday for Geagea's release.

The parliament also endorsed another amnesty bill for the release of a group of suspected Muslim militants being tried on charges of endangering state security, many of whom allegedly have links to al-Qaida.

The amnesty bill was published in the official gazette Thursday, effectively making Geagea a free man. His wife, Setrida, said he would be released in "a matter of days," and would address the Lebanese public before traveling abroad for medical checkups.

Geagea is the only prominent former warlord to remain jailed for opposing Syrian dominance. Other ex-militia leaders benefited from a 1991 general amnesty for crimes committed during the civil war.

Also Thursday in Damascus, Syria's social affairs and labor minister said 37 Syrian workers were killed in Lebanon during a wave of anti-Syrian sentiment after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and reiterated her country's demand for compensation to their families.

Speaking at a press conference, Deyalla al-Haj Aref denied Syria was trying to "settle accounts" with Lebanon. It's the first time Syria has produced official figures for the number of Syrians killed in Lebanon after Hariri's Feb. 14 death. There has been no Lebanese confirmation of the number and Lebanese unofficial estimates put the number at much less.

Many Lebanese blamed Syria and its agents in Lebanon for Hariri's killing, which Syria repeatedly denied. The assassination also prompted international pressure for Damascus to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in April, ending a 29-year-military presence in the country. (AP)