BEIRUT: Lebanon s rival factions will have thrashed out agreement on a new president by November 24 when current President Emile Lahoud s term runs out, parliament speaker Nabih Berri said on Monday.

By November 24, there will be a president of the republic who will have the approval of all the Lebanese, said the influential opposition leader.

He was speaking on the eve of a crucial parliament session to choose a new president and which has appeared doomed, with rival parties still deadlocked on the choice of a consensus candidate.

Berri, after a meeting with powerful Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir who heads the Maronite church from which the country s heads of state are traditionally chosen, said: The atmosphere is positive, not pessimistic.

I am optimistic, but one hand cannot clap on its own, he added, urging the ruling majority to put our hands together in order to reach a solution that would satisfy everybody.

Several legislators and politicians interviewed by AFP said Tuesday s session would focus on consultative talks between the feuding factions rather than trying to reach the quorum necessary to elect a president.

The session, the first in nearly a year because of a long-running political crisis, comes after an anti-Syrian MP and four other people were killed in a car bombing on Wednesday that members of the majority blamed on Damascus.