LEBANON - Apr. 23 - Hariri Sees Pope & Bush.

PM Hariri meets with Pope John Paul II in the Vatican. The Pope is scheduled to visit Syria in May (and Maronite Patriarch Sfeir still has not said whether or not he will join him there, in view of Sfeir's opposition to Syria's military presence in Lebanon). On Apr. 24, Hariri and his delegation, including Finance Minister Fuad Siniora and Energy Minister Mohammed Baydoun, met with US Pres. Bush at the White House. The meeting, which lasted 45 minutes rather than the scheduled 30 minutes, was also attended by Secretary of State Colin Powell, NSC advisor Rice and US Ambassador to Lebanon David Satterfield. Among other things, a Lebanese spokesman said, Hariri asked Bush for financial help to cope with Beirut's $25 bn public debt. The US media later reported that Bush asked for the Lebanese army to deploy throughout the south down to the border with Israel (to prevent anti-Israel attacks by Hizbollah and/or other Syria-backed guerrillas).

On Apr. 24 the FT quoted Ambassador Satterfield as saying before leaving Beirut for Washington: "Mr. Hariri will want from the US further signs of support politically for reforms being undertaken. We, along with others in the international community, welcome the measures the government has taken". (Hariri is committed to a programme of privatisation and administrative reform leading towards membership of the World Trade Organisation. His government secured in Feb. 500m - $450m - in soft loans and grants from the World Bank, the EU and European investment banks to ease the pressures on one of the world's highest debt levels. To ease borrowing costs, Beirut on Apr. 20 closed a 15-year $400m eurobond, placed exclusively with foreign investors, a week after closing a 5-year $1 bn eurobond.

Economic reform leads Hariri into a political minefield. His emphasis on national leadership brings conflict with close allies of Syria. Mustaqbal, a Beirut newspaper owned by Hariri, has questioned Hizbollah's "calculations" in attacking Israeli forces in Shebaa Farms, an area on the Lebanon-Syria border occupied by Israel and claimed by Lebanon. "Can the economic and social conditions of Lebanon today bear such operations?" asked Mustaqbal. "Is the timing a convenient one, consistent with Lebanon's interests?" The disagreement between Hariri and Hizbollah continues. Shaikh Nabil Qaouk, Hizbollah's southern commander, last week denied that Syria would put pressure on Hizbollah to stop attacks on Israeli forces in Shebaa. He said: "This will never happen. Syria fully supports our right to resist". Mohammed Raad, head of Hizbollah's parliamentary bloc, said Hariri's views were "nothing more than an attempt to camouflage a rejection of resistance warfare as means of liberating occupied land". There have been reports in Beirut in the past few days that Syria has, as a sign of displeasure, cancelled a meeting with Hariri planned for next week. But Syria has a clear interest in Lebanese economic success. Syrian Pres. Bashar Al Assad is encouraging Lebanese banks to help open up Syria's state-run economy. And there has been an increasingly public debate in Lebanon over the presence of 35,000 Syrian troops. Rector of St. Joseph's University Selim Abou denounced the "creeping dictatorship run by both the Lebanese and Syrian intelligence services". Last week, the security services appeared to retreat in a crucial test case as Samir Kassir, a columnist with the leading Al Nahar newspaper, had his passport returned by General Security. Kassir's nationality is under investigation, but he believes the case results from an article critical of Jamil Al Sayyed, the head of General Security).