BEIRUT - Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki is to visit Lebanon this week in an effort to help break the impasse over the choice of a new president, officials in Beirut said on Wednesday.

Mottaki is due to arrive on Thursday for a two-day visit ahead of his trip to Turkey to attend a conference on Iraq, they said.

His visit is aimed at finding a way to end the deadlock between the Western-backed ruling coalition and the opposition, which is backed by regional allies Syria and Iran, they said.

Mottaki, who is currently in Iraq, is due to meet President Emile Lahoud, parliament speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and Foreign Minister Fawzi Sallukh.

He is also due to meet various Muslim and Christian religious leaders, including Maronite Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir who has taken a pivotal role in the process to chose the next president -- traditionally a Maronite.

Lebanese lawmakers have failed to agree on a concensus candidate to replace incumbent pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, whose mandate expires next month.

Fears are running high that the row could lead to two rival governments and a return to the final years of the 1975-1990 civil war when two competing administrations battled for control. -AFP