(BEIRUT) - EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana urged Lebanon on Tuesday to elect a new president before the Arab summit to be held in Damascus at the end of March.

"We hope that an elected president from Lebanon will attend the Arab summit," Solana told a Beirut press conference in reference to the meeting, scheduled for March 29-30. "An election of a president should take place before the summit," he said expressing his support of an Arab initiative to defuse the country's political crisis.

Lebanon has been without a head of state since late November, when Emile Lahoud stepped down at the end of his term with parliament having elected no successor.

The parliamentary majority, backed by the West and most Arab states, and the opposition backed by Syria and Iran, have not been able to resolve the impasse.

Some Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, have indicated that they might stay away from the summit for what they see as a lack of Syrian cooperation in electing a new president.

"What we want from Syria is cooperation. We do not think they are cooperating", Solana said. "We have good, sometimes difficult relations with Syria. Today, they are not easy."

Syria dominated Lebanese politics until early 2005, when it was forced to withdraw its troops by an international outcry over the assassination of anti-Damascus former premier Rafiq Hariri. Syria was widely blamed for the murder, but denied any involvement.

Solana's four-hour visit came on the heels of a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories days after an Israeli air and ground offensive in Gaza left more than 100 dead.

He said the dispatch of the USS Cole destroyer to Lebanon was "not serious. I don't know why an American ship in international waters should scare the Lebanese people", he said, responding to rising fears of conflict after the ship was sent.

From Beirut, Solana will head to Cairo for meetings with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Arab League chief Amr Mussa.

Mussa has made several visits to Lebanon to try to resolve the feud, so far without success, and the political tensions have occasionally boiled over into street clashes in Beirut, prompting warnings of renewed civil strife.

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