The Lebanese opposition has pressed for 11th-hour changes to what it regards as an unfavourable electoral law, two days before President Emile Lahoud is to call parliamentary elections.

Separately, Lahoud called on parliament to ratify a new election law, refusing to carry out the polls according to the 2000 election law, which he said caused instability.

Opposition parties want revisions to the constituency boundaries established for the last elections in 2000, and after a five-day parliamentary recess for public holidays, Wednesday will be their last opportunity to change the law.

But so far Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, seen as pro-Syrian, has rebuffed calls for a debate.

"It is all in Berri's hands," Christian opposition member of parliament Nayla Muawad said.

"The 2000 electoral law is the worst. It was passed under Syrian tutelage in order to guarantee the control of the Syrian-Lebanese intelligence services over the Lebanese parliament," she said.

Another opposition MP, who asked not to be identified, said he feared Berri would prevent any debate as the law favoured his Amal faction.

An earlier attempt by the opposition to put forward amendments in a parliamentary committee last Thursday failed as they could not get a quorum.

Deadline pressure

Most opposition MPs say they would prefer the elections to go ahead on schedule later this month, as required by the constitution, rather than delay them for the sake of changing the boundaries.

The opposition is "determined to safeguard the elections and agrees they must be held on time", said Druze MP Ghazi Aridi.

"We will go into the elections united, whichever law is adopted," Muawad added.

But some Christian politicians have said they would rather delay the elections than see them held under the current constituency boundaries.

Former interim prime minister Michel Aoun, driven into exile by Syrian troops in 1990, accused opposition leaders ready to work with the 2000 law of treason.

Opposition split

Supporters of Aoun, who is planning a triumphant homecoming from France on Saturday after the departure of Syrian forces last month, have split with other opposition parties on other issues.

On Monday night, Sunnis, Druze and one Christian faction dismantled tents in Beirut's central Martyrs' Square where they had been staging a round-the-clock protest for the past two and a half months.

The "freedom camp" had become the symbol of the wave of opposition protests that swept the country after the assassination of five-time prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri in a February bomb blast widely blamed on Syria and its supporters in Lebanon.

But Aoun's supporters rejected the other factions' argument that the aims of the camp had been achieved and announced they would maintain their presence.

Syrian clarification

Meanwhile, a preliminary investigation has shown that Syrian troops deployed in a border area are on Syrian soil, not Lebanese land, officials said.

"The concerned security services informed Prime Minister Najib Miqati this evening of the preliminary results of the verification process of Syrian troops deployed in the eastern border region of Dair al-Ashair and Kfar Quq," Miqati's office said.

"The verification showed that these positions are inside Syrian territory," the statement added, a day before Miqati was to visit Damascus.

On Monday, Miqati said in the French newspaper Le Monde that Syrian troops were still deployed in Dair al-Ashair, inside Lebanese territory.

A UN team is already at work verifying the pullout.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Lebanese opposition militant sits in a dismantled part of the 'freedom camp' in Beirut's Martyrs Square. (AFP)