CAIRO - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has warned that Lebanon would be lost and the Arabs would "wash their hands" of the whole country if the Arab League initiative to end the longstanding political crisis in the country is not implemented and Lebanese Armed Forces commander General Michel Suleiman is not elected president.

Arab League chief Amr Moussa is preparing to return to Beirut Wednesday to continue mediation efforts. Speaking to Egypt's Al-Ahram daily, which reflects government thinking, on Sunday, Moussa refused to consider his mission a failure and refused to lay blame at either the majority or the opposition's door for failing to reach a deal.

Moussa chose not to give "a dose of optimism" but at the same time was not pessimistic. He told the paper that the Arab initiative is continuing and that consultations with both Syria and Saudi Arabia are continuing and denied that Syria was hindering the process.

Speaking to reporters Saturday, Mubarak said it is imperative the Arab initiative is implemented as it represents the firm conviction of all Arab countries without exception. "If it's not implemented everyone will wash their hands of Lebanon and the country would be lost and no one can know what its future will be. [The Lebanese] have to find a solution to their crisis, because if they do not agree they destroy Lebanon," he said.

He warned that both Lebanon and the region could face a very dangerous period if the initiative fails, saying it is all that's left after both American and European initiatives failed. "It is not reasonable for this country to remain like this. No one wants to see it turned into a battleground for many [regional] struggles," Mubarak added.

Syria on Sunday backed Arab League efforts to persuade rival political parties in Lebanon to agree to an Arab plan that paves the way for Suleiman's election. "Syria is waiting for [Moussa] to continue his efforts in Beirut, as soon as possible, within the framework proposed ... by the Arab foreign ministers," the official Syrian Arab News Agency said, quoting an unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman in Damascus. It added that the Arab plan is clear in that it adopts a position in which there is neither a winner nor a loser in Lebanon's political crisis.

Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir, in his Sunday sermon, warned that wars often start with words and while obstacles to accord are many the Lebanese have to do their best to overcome them.

Moussa returns to Beirut with the possibility of restarting national dialogue in Lebanon. The An-Nahar news daily reported Sunday that Lebanese political factions have informed Moussa they would return to national dialogue provided a five-member Arab ministerial committee oversees the process.

The ministerial committee, which drafted the plan to resolve the presidential election crisis in Lebanon, is made up of the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Qatar and Oman, and is headed by Moussa. The paper, quoting Arab diplomatic sources, feared presidential elections could be put off until the next Arab summit to be held in Damascus in March.

Moussa met at length with Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain al-Tineh late Saturday before his departure. Visitors to Ain al-Tineh on Saturday said Berri was seriously considering the 10+10+10 distribution of Cabinet posts between the majority, opposition and the president even if Change and Reform Bloc leader MP Michel Aoun and Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah refuse.

"Had this formula been accepted I would have opened Parliament and more than 95 MPs, myself included, would have supported it," Berri said.

He added that the 14+10+6 formula suggested by the majority renders the president hostage to the will of the majority, whereas the president ought to govern and arbitrate disputes between all parties.

Hizbullah reiterated that there was no way out of the current political crisis in Lebanon without the opposition's "participation in political decision-making." MP Mohammad Raad, who heads Hizbullah's Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc, said Sunday that any initiative which did not secure the opposition's participation in power would not succeed.

Speaking at an Ashura ceremony in the Southern town of Zrarieh, Raad said that US President George W. Bush is working to hamper all initiatives which aim to preserve the opposition's right to participate in government.

"The whole world will recognize there is an opposition in Lebanon and that no ruling authority can govern without its participation," Raad warned.

Parliamentary majority leader MP Saad HaririSaad-Hariri-Profile Sep-07 , speaking to Kuwaiti TV Saturday, reiterated the majority's unconditional support for the Arab initiative in its entirety. "The election of General Michel Suleiman to the presidency is the basis of this initiative," Hariri said, adding that the Lebanese "Pyramid" of government needs a head.

"Lebanon is passing through a difficult and dangerous period and the Arabs saw the extent to which this vacuum is dangerous, therefore we welcome the initiative and agree to it entirely," Hariri said, stressing the need to preserve the presidency, the top Maronite post in the country, which remains vacant.

A statement issued by the office of Premier Fouad Siniora Sunday stressed that electing a president ought to be the primary concern of all political parties.

Diplomatic sources in the French capital, quoted in An-Nahar, feared the internationalizing of the crisis in Lebanon, along the lines of what happened in 2004, when UN Security Council Resolution 1559, in which the world body called for free and fair presidential elections without foreign interference as well as the withdrawal of foreign troops from Lebanon. -Agencies