BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora assured Lebanese on Saturday there was no cause for alarm and said his cabinet was assuming executive powers in the absence of a president for the first time in nine years.
The mandate of President Emile Lahoud expired at midnight (10:00 p.m. British Time) on Friday after parliament failed to find a successor acceptable to both the anti-Syrian ruling coalition and the opposition led by pro-Syrian Hezbollah.
"When the presidency is vacant, the powers of the presidency devolve to the cabinet ... which is the legitimate and constitutional cabinet," Siniora told a news conference after meeting the Maronite Christian patriarch, Nasrallah Sfeir.
"There is nothing to worry about... Our natural concern is to work on how to ... complete the presidential election. None of the Lebanese, with myself at the forefront, will accept that there not be a president for the Republic."
But the opposition, led by the Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah, says the country no longer has any recognised executive. It has considered the government illegitimate ever since Shi'ite ministers resigned last year.
The dispute reflects the regional conflict between the United States and its allies on one side and the alliance between Syria, Iran and Hezbollah on the other.
The political void had no immediate impact on the streets of Beirut, where shops and cafes opened as normal and traffic circulated freely. The army, which deployed in force for a session of parliament on Friday, relaxed its controls.
The United States, the United Nations, the European Union and conservative Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan are expected to recognise the cabinet's authority.
Before relinquishing the presidency, Lahoud ordered the army to take charge of security, saying the country ran a risk of descending into a state of emergency.
