BEIRUT, Lebanon - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Lebanon on Thursday to meet feuding political leaders and try to persuade them to end a bitter struggle threatening to derail a presidential election.

Ban was scheduled to begin talks with members of the Western-backed ruling majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition who have been at loggerheads over who should replace pro-Syrian head of state Emile Lahoud.

The two camps have been deadlocked for more than two months on choosing a candidate to replace the current pro-Syrian head of state Emile Lahoud, prompting fears of two parallel governments being formed.

The UN chief on Friday was also due to meet with Nasrallah Sfeir, the influential leaders of the Christian Maronite community, from which Lebanon's president is traditionally drawn.

He was accompanied on his trip by Terje Roed-Larsen, the UN special envoy to the Middle East.

Lahoud's mandate ends November 24.

UN envoy Geir Pedersen said Ban's mission to Beirut was aimed at facilitating the presidential election and ensuring it goes in the right direction.

"We need a president before November 24," he told local television.

France, Lebanon's former colonial power, has spearheaded diplomatic efforts for the vote to take place with Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner convincing Sfeir earlier this week to draw up a list of candidates whose names could then be hashed over by the majority and opposition.

The prelate had previously resisted being drawn to the forefront of the crisis for fear of being accused of bias toward a particular party or candidate but he buckled under intense pressure from France.

It was unclear Thursday whether he had submitted his list of names, which was awaited anxiously in political circles where a guessing game was being played out as to who would end up on the list.

Lebanese newspapers speculated that Nassib Lahoud and Boutros Harb, the two candidates backed by the ruling majority, would be on the list along with Michel Aoun, the only declared candidate from the opposition.

The patriarch is expected to add three or more names to that list which would then be studied by parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a leading member of the opposition, and Saad Hariri, head of the majority bloc in parliament.

The pair could then pick two to three candidates to be proposed at a November 21 parliament session for MPs to held a presidential vote.

Three previous sessions for the election were scrapped for lack of consensus and next week's session is seen as a last-chance attempt to avert a full-blown crisis.

The ruling majority, which has 68 MPs in the 127-seat parliament, has threatened to go ahead with an absolute majority vote if an agreement is not reached by the November 23 deadline, prompting warnings by Hezbollah that this would be tantamount to a coup.

Apart from Kouchner and the UN chief, Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema was expected in Beirut this week along with Arab League secretary general Amr Mussa to push the feuding sides to agree.

Kouchner was also due to return next week to ensure the vote goes through.

The political deadlock marks the country's worst internal crisis since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.

Siniora's government has been paralysed since the opposition, which includes factions backed by Syria and Iran, withdrew its six ministers from the cabinet in November last year in a bid to gain more representation in government. -AFP