BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon's pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud has lost "all legitimacy" but must stay on for the sake of stability, MP Saad Hariri, son of slain former premier Rafiq Hariri, was quoted as saying Tuesday.

"Lahoud ... no longer has any legitimacy at the international and Lebanese levels, and everybody knows that the renewal of his mandate was done under the pressure of Syrian domination," Saad told the pan-Arab Al-Hayat daily.

Lahoud's mandate was due to end in September 2004 but was extended by parliament for three years, under Syrian pressure.

Syrian troops finally left Lebanon in April after a 29-year deployment, in accordance with a UN resolution and after a wave of popular protests over alleged Syrian involvement in Hariri's February killing in a Beirut bombing.

But Saad, who heads the most powerful grouping in Lebanon's parliament, said Lahoud could not quit his job as "the country cannot stop functioning."

"The president is there, the government is obliged to work with him, but that doesn't mean that we are satisfied" with the situation, he said.

"It is not the right time" to ask Lahoud to step down as "that would require an agreement with all our allies", in particular the pro-Syrian Shiite movements Hezbollah and Amal which also form part of the coalition.

Hariri, who has been based in Paris for the past several months because of security concerns amid a series of bombings in and around Beirut, heads the Future Movement which won elections held in May and June.

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