BEIRUT, Lebanon - Brigadier General Francois el-Hajj, killed in a car bomb attack on Wednesday, was tipped to head Lebanon’s armed forces if feuding politicians agreed to elect the current army chief as president.

Hajj, born on July 27, 1953, was the chief of military operations of the Lebanese armed forces and a key figure in the army’s defeat of Islamist militants in a 15-week battle earlier this year.

He was killed along with other soldiers in a morning rush-hour blast that rocked the Christian suburb of Baabda on the southeastern outskirts of Beirut, the army said.

Hajj was "immediately martyred in the explosion", the army said, branding the murders a crime and adding that it had launched an investigation into the blast which left at least four dead.

Lebanon’s state-run national news agency NNA said his bodyguard was among those killed.

Hajj was a "high-value target for the murderers... because he was tipped to become the future army chief," to succeed army commander General Michel Sleiman, retired General Elias Hanna told AFP.

A security official, who declined to be named, also confirmed that Hajj, a Christian Maronite, was tipped to replace Sleiman, who is the frontrunner to become Lebanon’s next president.

But Sleiman’s election has been deadlocked amid a tug-of-war between Lebanon’s Western-backed ruling majority and an opposition backed by Syria and Iran.

A parliamentary session on Tuesday to elect Sleiman was postponed until December 17, as politicians bickered on how to amend the consitution to allow the army chief to become president.

The majority and the opposition are also deadlocked over who will lead a future government, its shape, and nominations to top security posts, including the army and police commands.

Hanna also linked the murder to Hajj’s handling of a 15-week battle earlier this year between the army and Islamist militants of Fatah al-Islam in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared in northern Lebanon.

"He was killed because of his position as head of operations at Nahr el-Bared as well," he said.

Hajj and army chief Sleiman refused to negotiate with the militants, wiping out Fatah al-Islam in September after a battle that cost more than 400 lives, including about 300 militants and 168 soldiers.

"Francois el-Hajj was my friend. He was a true man, a distinguished officer and competent at what he was doing," Hanna added.

A security official described Hajj as "a great man, a kind man, who was very intelligent."

Hajj hailed from the southern Christian town of Rmeish, near the Lebanon-Israel border and was the target of an Israeli attack in the town in the late 1970s, according to the army.

He was as the first military man killed since a series of political assassinations in Lebanon, where a political crisis has lingered since the murder of former billionaire premier Rafiq Hariri in February 2005.

The killings were blamed on Syria, which dominated Lebanon for three decades until April 2005 when its troops withdrew, but Damascus has denied any involvment and swiftly condemned the murder of Hajj.

Hajj was married and had a son and two daughters.