Lebanese leader won’t attend Arab summit
BEIRUT, Lebanon - President Emile Lahoud bowed out of a meeting of Arab leaders in Algeria on Monday, saying circumstances in Lebanon require him to stay in the country, hours after a car bomb raised fresh fears of a return to the country’s violent past.

At least six people were wounded by the car bomb Saturday which wrecked the front of a multi-story government building in a predominantly Christian suburb.
local people feared it may have been an attempt to sow divisions between Christians and Muslims.

The explosion comes amid acute political tension since the Feb. 14 killing by bomb of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, and prompted President Emile Lahoud’s first personal initiative to break the deadlock over Syria’s influence in its tiny neighbor.

Lahoud urged the country’s pro-Syrian and anti-Syrian opposition politicians to begin a dialogue right away.”The president affirms the need for such a dialogue meeting starting today in any place they agree on, including the presidential palace, which will keep its doors open,” Lahoud’s office said in a statement.

Damascus has already bowed to international demands it withdraw its troops from Lebanon after Hariri’s assassination sparked street protests in Beirut against the Syrians, blamed by many Lebanese for his death.

Syria denies the charge but has begun withdrawing the troops it poured into Lebanon early in the 1975-1990 civil war.

Deepening Lebanon’s political crisis, key opposition leader Walid Jumblatt has said he and his allies would not join a new government as long as Lahoud remained in office.

That stance has threatened a bid to forge a unity government headed by pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karami.

Karami resigned on February 28 under intense pressure following Hariri’s killing. But he was reappointed by parliament last week to bring together both opposition and loyalist politicians in a cabinet to lead Lebanon to general elections scheduled for May.

Last week, Syria began pulling its 14,000 troops to the Bekaa Valley near the border, and vowed to bring all the troops and intelligence officials across the border into Syria later on.