LEBANON - Sept 5 - Lebanon's Parliament Opens The Way For Fierce Presidential Battle.

Lebanon's presidential election battle opens as the speaker of the deeply divided parliament set Sept. 25 as the date lawmakers must begin voting to select a head of state. The session would be the first time parliament has met since October of last year. Speaker Nabih Berri has refused to convene parliament over the past months after his opposition allies resigned from the government. Between the Sept. 25 session and Nov. 23, when President Emile Lahoud must step down, parliament will have to overcome political divisions and decide on a new head of state. Berri's announcement only said the session was called to elect a president, but the meeting later this month was expected to bring the confrontation between the government and opposition to a head. The US-backed majority in parliament and the pro-Syrian and pro-Iranian opposition led by the militant group Hizbullah have been locked in a fierce power struggle and are at odds over whether the president is elected by a two-thirds of the parliament or a simple majority in the 128-seat house. The opposition has threatened to boycott the vote and deny parliament its two-thirds quorum, thereby deadlocking the process, if no agreement is reached on a candidate. The majority controls 69 seats in the 128-member legislature and has threatened to just go ahead and choose a president from its own ranks with its majority. The result could well be rival governments, a grim reminder of the last two years of the 1975-90 civil war when army units loyal to competing administrations battled it out. If the parliament cannot elect a president by Nov. 23, PM Fuad Saniora and his Cabinet would automatically take on executive powers - a prospect pro-Syrian Lahoud does not relish and has proposed to appoint the army commander to lead a civilian government that would run the country until there is agreement on a president. Opposition supporters have said Lahoud might even appoint a second government, but some have warned that this could break up the country. "The gravest thing would be to have two governments", said Butros Harb, a presidential candidate from the majority. "I say it loud: Having two governments is partitioning Lebanon into two Lebanons". The president, who is elected for a one-time six-year term, has limited powers under the Arab-brokered Taif agreement that ended the civil war. He has little control over who parliamentary blocs name as PM, but he can block the PM's Cabinet lineup. He also chairs Cabinet meetings but cannot vote, and a Cabinet majority can overrule his veto on key decisions. Harb and two other members from majority parties - one lawmaker and one who lost his seat in 2005 elections - are running for president. An opposition leader who leads a large Christian bloc in the legislature, Michel Aoun, also has declared his candidacy. There have been calls for a president to be above the politics to bring the country together and help end the political crisis, revive the economy and restore confidence in the system. The parliamentary majority and Saniora are currently boycotting the Lahoud because of his alliance to neighboring Syria, which called the shots in Lebanon for years but was forced to withdraw its army two years ago after the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri. Along with the political dispute, electing a president also has a sensitive sectarian element. Under a power-sharing arrangement, the president is a Maronite Catholic - the only non-Muslim leader of an Arab country - the PM a Sunni Muslim and the parliament speaker a Shi'ite Muslim. The Cabinet and parliament are split equally between Christians and Muslims, while the army is led by a Christian and the police is headed by a Muslim. Saniora defended the need for the election. After talks in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Saniora said Lebanon was passing through a very sensitive phase "in which we want to really protect and safeguard the independence and sovereignty of the country - and at the same time respect the constitution and, in particular, to hold the elections and to really hold them within the constitutional period".