BEIRUT, Lebanon, Nov. 19--Lebanon’s rival political factions appeared in total deadlock on Monday on finding a consensus presidential candidate despite intense international pressure and a looming deadline for a vote.
According to AFP, newspapers and analysts speculated that a parliamentary session Wednesday for MPs to elect a successor to current pro-Syrian head of state Emile Lahoud may be postponed again, prompting fears of civil unrest and the formation of two parallel governments.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was in Beirut to nudge the Western-backed ruling majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition to strike a deal before Saturday, when Lahoud’s mandate expires.
Arab League chief Amr Mussa was also due in Beirut on Monday, joining a host of foreign dignitaries who have rushed to Lebanon in recent days to persuade the two sides to strike a deal.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also called Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, parliament speaker and leading opposition figure Nabih Berri and other leaders on Sunday to encourage them to reach a settlement.
France, Lebanon’s former colonial power, has been leading efforts to break the impasse but Kouchner, on his sixth visit to Beirut in as many months, expressed pessimism on Sunday over the chances of a breakthrough.
“There is a new situation, I am less confident now. It’s more complicated,“ he said, adding that there was “a split in the Christian camp“.
The confessional system in Lebanon mandates that the president, who is elected by parliament, is a member of the Maronite Christian community.
The leading An-Nahar newspaper said Kouchner’s visit was a clear sign “of a total blockage in negotiations... and efforts--both internal and external--to reach a compromise.“
The ruling majority has vowed to proceed with its own vote in parliament if a deal is not reached by Friday while the opposition has threatened to set up its own government.

Construction workers are seen on top of foundations of a new house in the West Bank settlement of Nofei Prat, Feb. 2.

BEIT-UL-MOQADDAS, Nov. 19--Israel said on Monday it would freeze construction of new settlements in the occupied West Bank and planned to free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners ahead of a key US peace meeting.
The moves were unveiled shortly before Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas met in a last-ditch bid to resolve differences on a joint document being drawn up for the peace conference.
Ahead of the encounter, the Israeli cabinet approved the release of nearly 450 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture to Abbas, a senior official told AFP.
Palestinians had requested that Israel free some 2,000 of the 11,000 Palestinian detainees that it is holding.
Olmert also vowed Israel would abide by commitments on settlement activity that it undertook--but has not honored--under the so-called Middle East roadmap peace plan, largely dormant since its 2003 launch.
“We have committed ourselves under the roadmap not to build new settlements in the West Bank and we will not build any,“ a senior official quoted Olmert as telling ministers.
But Olmert’s statements appeared to fall short of a complete freeze to settlements---including the expansion of existing ones--which the Palestinians have demanded ahead of the peace meeting expected to take place next week in the US town of Annapolis.

BEIJING, Nov. 19--China will push the European Union to repeal its arms embargo when the two sides meet later this month, a Foreign Ministry official said Monday.
The embargo, enacted after Chinese troops crushed 1989 student pro-democracy protests centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, has long rankled Beijing, although there have been few signs of late that the EU is prepared to abandon it, AP said.
“We do not think that the arms embargo is consistent with the trend of the time as well as the partnership between the two sides,“ a ministry official said at briefing for reporters ahead of annual China-EU consultations later this month.
China does not wish to purchase advanced weaponry from Europe, but regards the embargo as a form of political discrimination, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
China hopes the EU will provide “concrete action“ on the embargo at the meeting, he said.
The issue has been an ongoing source of strain between China and the EU, which otherwise enjoy vigorous diplomatic and trade relations.
An EU delegation is due in Beijing on Nov. 28, led by Prime Minister Jose Socrates of Portugal, which holds the presidency of the 25-nation group.
The European Union is China’s biggest trading partner, ahead of the United States and Japan. The US has similar restrictions in place with China and has lobbied the EU not to lift the embargo.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 19--Pakistan’s opposition refused to attend a meeting called by the Election Commission on Monday to discuss a code of conduct for parliamentary polls that the US says won’t be fair under emergency rule, Bloomberg reported.
“The entire opposition will boycott the meeting and this should be a message to the Election Commission,’’ Fareed Piracha, a spokesman for the Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal, an alliance of religious parties, said in a phone interview.“
“The Election Commission has to decide whether it wants to play its constitutional role or work as an agent of Musharraf.’’
President Pervez Musharraf rebuffed pressure from Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte to restore the constitution and free political prisoners, saying emergency rule is necessary to stop the nuclear-armed nation descending into chaos. The army chief proposed holding elections on Jan. 8 amid a ban on rallies and the arrest of thousands of lawyers and political workers.
A new Supreme Court panel of 10 judges appointed by Musharraf rejected most challenges to his re-election as president today, leaving one petition to be heard from tomorrow. Musharraf replaced his chief justice on Nov. 3 and dissolved an earlier bench of judges just before they were to rule on the legality of his second five-year term.
More than two weeks into the state of emergency, Musharraf has detained thousands of opposition supporters, curbed non-state media and banned public rallies. Opposition parties say more than 15,000 supporters have been arrested.
Musharraf proposed to the Election Commission that national elections be held on Jan. 8, the official Associated Press of Pakistan reported today.
The Election Commission, which is responsible for overseeing polls, invited political parties to attend a meeting in Islamabad to discuss a proposed code of conduct, said a statement on the agency’s Web site.

LA PAZ, Bolivia,
Nov. 19--Bolivian President Evo Morales accused the US ambassador to his country of plotting a “conspiracy“ against his administration, as his simmering feud with Washington worsened.
Morales said US ambassador Philip Goldberg aspires to be a “counterweight“ to his government and erode its legitimacy, AFP said.
“What he is now doing is a conspiracy against the government,“ Morales said during a press conference in the town of Viacha, outside La Paz.
He called on Washington “to practice diplomacy, not politics.“
The Bolivian government earlier this month expressed outrage over a photo showing Goldberg standing next to John Jairo Vanegas, a Colombian criminal now serving time in a Bolivian jail for armed robbery.
Diplomatic ties between the United States and Bolivia have frayed since Morales, a leftwing indigenous former coca farmer, took power last year.
Morales has criticized “US capitalism“ and resisted US efforts to eradicate coca cultivation in the country in a bid to eradicate cocaine production.
Last month Goldberg was forced to apologize after Bolivia took exception to him mocking a suggestion by Morales that the UN headquarters be moved away from New York.

A demonstrator in central Brussels holds a placard reading (1 Walloon+1 Flemish = 2 Belgians) as he joins a thousands-strong march to support Belgium's unity, Nov. 18.

BRUSSELS, Belgium, Nov. 19--Tens of thousands of Belgians took to the streets late Sunday to show their support for national unity as a bitter political crisis threatens to split the Dutch and French-speaking country in two.
Belgium has been for a record five months without a government since elections in June with no prospect of a way out of the impasse as both linguistic communities appear as entrenched as ever in their positions, reported AFP.
“I want to show that the Flemish feel solidarity with all Belgians, whether one is Walloon or Flemish, one is first and foremost Belgian,“ Rudy van Nespen from Antwerp said.
“I do not think Belgium will break up because you see this rally is sending out a signal, people do not want Belgium to break up.“ The majority of the marchers on Sunday were Francophones, but there was also a large number of Flemish speakers.
Banners with the words “For Unity“ were written in Dutch, French and German--Belgium also has a German-speaking minority--and placed at the front of the march.
The event took place without incident except for around a dozen Flemish nationalists being arrested during a counter-demonstration in front of the royal palace in Brussels.
The major stumbling block to forming a government is that the Flemish and French-speaking parties cannot agree on how much
autonomy the Flemish community should enjoy.
Polls have shown many Flemish favoring a complete split, and one published last week by France’s Le Journal du Dimanche found strong support for Wallonia joining France if Belgium were to break up.
Leaders from the main Francophone parties were also in attendance, with the exception of the liberal party.

BRUSSELS, Belgium, Nov. 19--EU foreign ministers criticized on Monday a threat by the front-runner in Kosovo elections to declare the independence of the breakaway Serb province in a matter of weeks, urging calm on all sides.
Ex-guerrilla Hashim Thaci, tipped to become prime minister of the majority ethnic Albanian province after Saturday’s ballot, said parliament would declare independence immediately after a December 10 deadline for international mediation efforts, reported Reuters.
While the United States backs Kosovo independence, the European Union is divided. Around half a dozen EU capitals are reluctant to support any such move without formal UN blessing.
“Mr Thaci has to understand there is a difference between being a politician in opposition and a responsible prime minister,“ Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt told reporters as he arrived for an EU meeting with counterparts in Brussels.
Bildt, whose country is among those who have concerns about a unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo, urged Thaci to concentrate on uniting the ethnically divided province and warned that any hasty moves could lead to it being isolated.