BEIRUT - MP Michel Murr confirmed Tuesday that his alliance with the Phalange Party has become "final" and will be officially announced once former President Amin Gemayel returns from Belgium.

The two leaders have been holding crucial talks for the past two months to "draw up an electoral strategy" for the northern Metn district, where their main contender is the Free Patriotic Movement, headed by Gen. Michel Aoun, the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported Tuesday.

Media reports said Gemayel sealed the agreement with Murr to run on a unified ticket in June's elections during a private meeting Sunday night in Bikfaya.

Later Tuesday, Murr confirmed that his alliance with the Phalange has become "final," the National News Agency reported.

During talks with Qatari Ambassador to Lebanon Saad bin Hilal al-Muhannadi, Murr also praised Nasrallah Sfeir for adopting stances that aim to "rescue" Lebanon warning that verbal attacks against the Maronite patriarch only reflect intentions to "sabotage the country."

Murr was referring to remarks made by Deputy Prime Minister Issam Abu Jamra in which he slammed Sfeir's position on March 8 as "undemocratic." Murr described Abu Jamra as a "political no-body."

"I didn't stab the FPM in the back. They stabbed me," Murr said, adding that he gave the FPM the voices of his supporters in Metn during the 2005 elections.

Attempts to restore ties between Murr and Aoun came to halt when reports of the three-hour Bikfaya meeting emerged, al-Hayat reported. Murr denied reports of "personal or telephone contacts between Defense Minister Elias Murr and the FPM."

Aoun "will now be forced to form a coalition with the Syrian Social National Party" which has so far refused to drop its nominee, Ghassan Ashkar, in favor of an FPM candidate, the newspaper said. It is still not clear whether Aoun will include former minister Michel Samaha on his list to replace MP Edgard Maalouf. -Naharnet