Lebanon's pro-western government and the Hizbollah-led opposition yesterday agreed to a resumption of political dialogue after Arab League mediators brokered a deal ending days of sectarian fighting.

The return to talks, which are to begin as early as today in Doha, comes after the government was forced to revoke two decisions that Hizbollah had considered a declaration of war.

The Shia militant group, the most heavily armed in Lebanon, overran government strongholds in west Beirut last week and clashed with government supporters in other parts of the country in the worst violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.

"What happened cannot be allowed to happen again," Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, said yesterday.

Hizbollah's show of force was an embarrassment to the government and its US and Saudi backers. It has forced the governing coalition, led by a Sunni party, to return to dialogue on terms the opposition had been demanding.

Sheikh Naim Qassem, Hizbollah's deputy chief, said the party was looking for a political settlement that would lead "to there being no victor and no vanquished".

But it was the headline in the pro-Hizbollah al-Akhbar newspaper that summarised the mood in the opposition camp. The reversal of the government decisions, it said, meant that the opposition had gained, by force, the blocking minority that it had been seeking in the cabinet.

Hizbollah and its allies have wanted a comprehensive agreement that would lead to the election of General Michel Suleiman, army chief, as president, but only after the parliamentary majority agrees to give them a greater say in the cabinet.

The deal worked out with the Arab League returns the country to the status quo that prevailed before the outbreak of violence last week; the government revokes the decisions to declare Hizbollah's telecommunications network illegal and to sack the airport security chief, while the militant group removes its fighters from the streets and ends its blockade of the airport and port.

All sides also pledged not to resort to the use of force and to take part in a dialogue that would lead to the election of Gen Suleiman as president, the formation of a national unity government and the drafting of a new electoral law.

The high profile taken by Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, the prime minister of Qatar and head of the Arab League delegation, raised questions about Saudi Arabia's eclipsed role.

However, Sheikh Hamad said yesterday that Riyadh fully backed the agreement.

Although previous dialogue between Lebanese factions has rarely yielded results, Ossama Safa, a political analyst in Beirut, said the Doha talks had a better chance because the government was now too weak to resist Hizbollah's demands.