Lebanese prime minister plans to visit Syria after confidence vote

Beirut - Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Friday he is planning visits to a series of Western and Arab countries, including Syria, assuming he wins a vote of confidence before the Lebanese parliament next week. "We look positively at the step of establishing embassies in the two countries (Lebanon and Syria), and we have to change things in a positive manner, especially that we tried to change using negative means and we did not reach any result," Hariri told reporters at the governmental palace.

It is widely assumed that Hariri will win the vote of confidence.

Relations between Lebanon and Syria soured after Hariri's father, former premier Rafik Hariri, was assassinated in 2005 in a bomb blast in Beirut.

Hariri's allies at the time held Syria and its Lebanese allies responsible for the assassination, a charge that Damascus has denied vehemently.

On August 15, 2008, Syrian President Bashar Assad issued a decree to establish diplomatic relations with Lebanon for the first time since Lebanon's independence in 1943.

Western countries and the Lebanon's anti-Syrian politicians have long demanded that Syria recognize Lebanon's sovereignty by establishing official relations.

Syria was Lebanon's power broker until shortly after the death of the elder Hariri, after which Lebanon and the West forced it to end its 30-year military presence in its smaller neighbor.

The vote of confidence in Hariri's newly formed cabinet by the 128-member parliament is scheduled for December 8.

Hariri said the new government will have to adapt to a new policy of openness toward all political factions.

"There are the reconciliations that happened under the auspices of (Lebanon's) President Michel Suleiman, and all of that leads toward a consensus atmosphere in the country, especially regarding the controversial issues and government's priorities," added Hariri.

Hariri's western-backed majority won a June 7 parliamentary elections over the country's Hezbollah-led opposition.