960405

Chirac meets Lebanon's leader

BKIRKE: French President Jacques Chirac on Friday met Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, Lebanon's most outspoken Christian leader, who has frequently criticised the Syrian-backed government and demanded the withdrawal of Syrian and Israeli troops from Lebanon.

Chirac drove out of Beirut on the second day of his official visit to Lebanon to meet the 76-year-old patriarch of the Maronite church at the patriarchate at Bkirke, some 20 km north-east of the capital.

Hundreds of troops lined the route and Lebanese army helicopters flew overhead.

Newspapers had said tens of thousands of Christians planned to converge on Bkirke to make the occasion an opposition festival, but only one or two thousand were present when Chirac arrived.

A priest in the courtyard of the patriarchate told Reuters Lebanese and Syrian troops were stopping cars from getting to Bkirke. Others said people appeared to have been prevented from reaching departure points for buses waiting to bring them.

Christian youths who managed to get to Bkirke on foot said soldiers had even taken away t-shirts with political slogans.

Chirac was due to attend the Good Friday liturgy commemorating the crucifixion of Christ before holding talks with Sfeir.

Sfeir was expected to hand him a note from Christian opposition leaders -Reuter- several of whom live in exile in France - demanding that parliamentary elections due in the autumn are free and fair.

The vast majority of Lebanese Christians and many Muslims boycotted the last elections in 1992 in protest at the continued presence of some 35,000 Syrian troops in Lebanon.-Reuter