SHOTLIST

1. Arrival of convoy with Alexander Sultanov, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister

2. Sultanov walking with officials

3. Pan from cameramen and photographers to Sultanov and Fawzi Salloukh, former Lebanese Foreign Minister

4. Mid of Sultanov

5. Mid of Salloukh

6. Wide of meeting

7. Cutaway cameramen

8. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic), Alexander Sultanov, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister:

"We discussed the international tribunal and other internal affairs. We agreed on the continuation of national dialogue, a dialogue of all the problems in Lebanon, because dialogue is the only way to save the national consensus and unity."

9. Cameramen

10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Fawzi Salloukh, former Lebanese Foreign Minister:

"Russia will take all necessary action to help and support in finding a solution to the problem."

11. Convoy leaving

12. Presidential palace

13. Sultanov at meeting with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud

14. Mid of Lahoud

15. Mid of Sultanov

16. Exterior, Prime Minister's office building

17. Lebanese flag

18. Various of meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora

19. Exterior of Ein El-Tineh Palace

20. Various of meeting with parliament speaker, Nabih Berri

STORYLINE:

Envoys from Russia and the UN were involved in Beirut on Tuesday in what may be a last-ditch attempt to win approval from Lebanon's opposing camps for an international tribunal into the assassination of Lebanon's prime minister, Rafik Hariri, a subject that's divided Lebanese opinion and which threatens the country's stability.

The parliament has put off approving a draft agreement with the United Nations, paralyzed by a political crisis between the government, which wants a multi-national tribunal to prosecute suspects in the 2005 assassination, and the Hezbollah-led opposition, which wants more discussion first.

The Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and the parliamentary majority have asked the United Nations to impose the Hariri tribunal and bypass the Lebanese legislature but opposition leaders have warned that such intervention could spell more trouble for the country.

Clashes over the issue have already caused nine deaths.

Opposition campaigners have been camping outside Saniora's office since December, 2006, paralyzing large parts of the capital's commercial district to demand his resignation but Saniora has refused to step down.

Russia's deputy foreign minister, Alexander Sultanov arrived for talks in Beirut with various Lebanese officials and the former Lebanese foreign minister Fawzi Salloukh.

Sultanov said that Russia was eager to help find a compromise, not impose a solution, stressing that the Lebanese need to find consensus through dialogue.

"We discussed the international tribunal," he said. "We agreed upon the continuation of the national dialogue, a dialogue of all the problems in Lebanon, because dialogue is the only way to save the national consensus and unity."

Fawzi Salloukh, who resigned as Lebanon's foreign minister, said that Russia would do what is necessary to help and support in finding a solution to the problem.

Russia, with a veto on UN Security Council resolutions, has enjoyed good relations with Lebanon and Syria, which has been widely accused of involvement in the assassination.

Sultanov also met with Lebanon's President Emile Lahoud, Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. He is then expected to travel to Syria, which remains an important player despite the withdrawal of its army from Lebanon in the wake of Hariri's assassination.

Along with Sultanov, the top UN legal chief Nicolas Michel was flying in later Tuesday to Beirut to help overcome the impasse.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, is scheduled to visit Syria next week, after a trip to Lebanon in March.

The anti-Syrian majority in Parliament blames Damascus for killing Hariri, an accusation Syria vehemently denies, and say the Syrians were using their Lebanese allies to undermine the formation of the tribunal.

SHOTLIST

++NIGHT SHOTS++

1. Exterior shot of Prime Minister's office in Beirut

2. Mid shot of Lebanese soldiers and armoured vehicle in position around Prime Minister's office

3. Mid shot of Lebanese soldiers

4. Wide shot of Lebanese soldiers and armoured vehicle

5. Wide shot of Prime Minister's office

6. Wide shot of Lebanese cabinet meeting

7. Mid shot of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora sitting at head of meeting

8. Mid shot of picture of murdered Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel placed in his position around meeting table

9. Various of cabinet ministers around table

10. Mid shot of picture of murdered Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel

11. Cameras

12. Mid shot of Lebanese Minister of Information, Ghazi Aridi, at press conference

13. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Ghazi Aridi, Lebanese Minister of Information:

"(The cabinet) approved the creation of an international tribunal between Lebanon and the United Nations and authorised the Justice Minister to sign this agreement with the United Nations and also to send this approval to the Lebanese Parliament for authorisation.''

14. Cameras

STORYLINE

The Lebanese government on Saturday approved an international tribunal for suspects in the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, despite warnings of mass protests by its opponent Hezbollah.

Last-ditch attempts to reach a compromise between the government and the pro-Syrian camp, led by Hezbollah, appeared to fail as the cabinet moved forward with its meeting for a UN created court.

The tribunal is a key bone of contention in the power struggle between allies and opponents of Syria in Lebanon.

Anti-Syrian forces - mainly Christian and Sunni Muslim - dominate the government, but are facing a campaign by the mainly Shiite pro-Syrian camp to bring the government down.

The political crisis became potentially explosive this week with the assassination of an anti-Syrian politician, raising worries of more violence that could tear apart the country's fragile sectarian seams.

The anti-Syrian bloc brought out some 800,000 people for a mass rally at the funeral of the politician, Pierre Gemayel, on Thursday.

Hezbollah has shown it can bring out similar numbers for its protests - and if it goes ahead with its threatened demonstrations, many fear it could start a spiral of street action.

Earlier on Saturday, two key anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians met with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah and a Syria supporter, in an apparent attempt to find a compromise.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora offered to put off the contentious Cabinet vote for several days if six pro-Hezbollah ministers who quit the government earlier this month returned.

Hezbollah demands that the government be changed to give it and its allies more power, or else it says it will launch mass protests to topple Saniora.

But the reconciliation bid appeared to have failed, and the Cabinet meeting approved a UN draft for the tribunal.

In the eyes of Hezbollah, the approval of the tribunal amounts to a rejection of its demands for a greater representation in the Cabinet.

The Shiite militant group and Lebanon's pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud, have denounced the current government as unconstitutional, because the constitution underlines that the government must represent all of Lebanon's main communities.

"(The cabinet) approved the creation of an international tribunal between Lebanon and the United Nations and authorised the Justice Minister to sign this agreement with the United Nations and also to send this approval to the Lebanese Parliament for authorisation,'' Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said after the vote.

Aridi's statement went on to say that Prime Minister Saniora insisted the approval of the tribunal was not meant as a provocation against Hezbollah and its allies.

For opponents of Syria, the court is a major priority, and they hope it will uncover the truth behind the February 2005 assassination of Hariri in a massive bomb blast that killed 22 others, which they accuse Damascus of orchestrating. Syria has denied any role in the killing.

The court, which will sit outside Lebanon and have a majority of non-Lebanese judges, is to try four Lebanese generals - top pro-Syrian security chiefs under Lahoud including his Presidential Guard commander, who have been under arrest for 14 months, accused of involvement in

Hariri's murder.

The UN investigation into Hariri's death has also implicated Brigadier General Assaf Shawkat, Syria's military intelligence chief and the brother-in-law of Syrian President Bashar Assad. But Shawkat is not in custody.

Hariri's death was the first in a string of attacks that killed five other prominent anti-Syrian figures - with Gemayel the most recent, in a bold daytime shooting on Tuesday.

Many Lebanese blame Syria in all the killings, which Damascus denies.

Since Gemayel's assassination, some ministers in Saniora's Cabinet have moved into the heavily guarded prime minister's building in downtown Beirut, fearing more slayings.

SHOTLIST

1. Wide of area were bomb blast happened

2. Mid of men looking at the remains of a car

3. Cordon next to remains of a vehicle

4. People inspecting damage

5. Dented parked cars along the road

6. Mangled vehicles

7. Pan of damage

8.Damaged building

9. People looking at damage

10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Elie Roukoz, Beirut Resident:

" As you see the whole buildings are damaged, we felt that the ground is shaking up and down."

11. Cars along street in Beirut

12. Various of man reading paper

13. Pan of papers on the news stand

14. Mid of front page reading (ENGLISH) " MP Antoine Ghamen assassinated"

15. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Samer Mrad, Beirut Resident

" We want to see and to know the hands behind such acts and who has the interest. This is only affecting the poor and miserable people."

16. Lebanese security forces convoy along street

17. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Saad Hariri, Lebanese lawmaker heading the main anti-Syrian alliance in Parliament:

"The presidency does not belong to Saad Hariri, or to Hassan Nasrallah, or to Nabih Berri, or to Michel Aoun, or to any other party. The presidency belongs to the people of Lebanon."

18. Cutaway

19. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Saad Hariri, Lebanese lawmaker heading the main anti-Syrian alliance in Parliament:

"The International Tribunal, which will try those cowardly criminal killers, will also try those who sabotage the presidential elections."

20. Various of locked up shops

STORYLINE

Lebanese leaders pledged on Thursday to press ahead with a divisive election for president, to be held in Parliament in coming days, despite the car bombing assassination of an anti-Syrian lawmaker.

Wednesday's bomb killed Antoine Ghanem, an anti-Syria lawmaker, and six others in a Christian neighbourhood of Beirut and threatened to derail efforts to bring the country's rival parties together to agree on a head of state ahead of time, before voting is set to begin next week.

Investigators were at the sight examining the remains of the blast.

At least 67 were wounded in the explosion, which severely damaged buildings and set cars ablaze during rush hour on a busy street in the Sin el-Fil neighbourhood.

Ghanem, 64, a member of the right-wing Christian Phalange party, had returned from refuge abroad only two days earlier. He was the eighth anti-Syria figure and fourth governing coalition lawmaker to be assassinated in less than three years.

On Thursday Lebanese newspapers were focused entirely on the assassination.

Samer Mrad a Beirut resident said he wants to know who is behind the attack.

" We want to see and to know that hands behind such acts and who has the interest. This is only affecting the poor and miserable people," he said.

Coalition members blamed Syria for the death, but Damascus denied involvement, as it has for the previous seven assassinations, including the 2005 bombing death of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora asked the United Nations secretary-general in a letter to add the Ghanem assassination to an international probe into Hariri's slaying and other political crimes in Lebanon.

On Wednesday Hariri's son, who now heads the main anti-Syrian alliance in the Lebanese parliament, called the perpetrators of the attack "cowardly criminal killers".

"The presidency does not belong to Saad Hariri, or to Hassan Nasrallah, or to Nabih Berri, or to Michel Aoun, or to any other party. The presidency belongs to the people of Lebanon," Saad Hariri said.

Many people fear the divisions over the presidency could lead to creation of two rival governments, a grim threat to repeat the last two years of Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war when army units loyal to competing administrations battled it out.

President Emile Lahoud, an ally of Syria, is due to step down from the presidency by November 23 and government supporters see the vote as the opportunity to put one of their own in the post.

But Hezbollah and its allies have vowed to block any candidate they do not approve and they can do so by boycotting the ballots, preventing the needed two-thirds quorum of 85 votes.

If no candidate is agreed on by the time Lahoud steps down, Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and his cabinet would automatically take on executive powers.

If that happens, opposition supporters have said Lahoud might appoint a second government, a step many fear would break up the country.

Schools, universities and many businesses in Christian areas of Beirut, plus in the Mount Lebanon region north of the capital, closed on Thursday in a day of mourning and to observe a strike called by the Phalange Party.

A funeral was to be held Friday.

SHOTLIST

1. Tilt-up of rubble to people setting up security cordon

2. Pan from wreckage of one car to wreckage of another car

3. Soldiers shouting orders

4. Paramedic running to help, pan to vehicle being hosed

5. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Saad Hariri, Lebanese lawmaker heading the main anti-Syrian alliance in Parliament:

"The presidency does not belong to Saad Hariri, or to Hassan Nasrallah, or to Nabih Berri, or to Michel Aoun, or to any other party. The presidency belongs to the people of Lebanon."

6. Cutaway

7. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Saad Hariri, Lebanese lawmaker heading the main anti-Syrian alliance in Parliament:

"The International Tribunal, which will try those cowardly criminal killers, will also try those who sabotage the presidential elections."

8. Wide view from above blast site

STORYLINE

A powerful bomb killed an anti-Syria lawmaker and six others in a Christian neighbourhood of Beirut on Wednesday, threatening to derail an effort by an already deeply divided parliament to elect Lebanon's next president in voting to begin next week.

Antoine Ghanem, a 64-year-old member of the Christian Phalange party who had returned from refuge abroad only two days earlier, was the eighth

anti-Syria figure and fourth lawmaker from the governing coalition to be assassinated in less than three years.

Coalition members blamed Syria, but Damascus denied involvement, as it has for the previous seven assassinations, including the 2005 bombing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a killing that ignited huge protests that forced Syria to withdraw its troops after a three-decade occupation.

Hariri's son, who now heads the main anti-Syrian alliance in the Lebanese parliament, called the perpetrators of Wednesday's attack "cowardly criminal killers".

"The presidency does not belong to Saad Hariri, or to Hassan Nasrallah, or to Nabih Berri, or to Michel Aoun, or to any other party. The presidency belongs to the people of Lebanon," Saad Hariri said.

Many people fear the divisions over the presidency could lead to creation of two rival governments, a grim threat to repeat the last two years of

Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war when army units loyal to competing administrations battled it out.

President Emile Lahoud, an ally of Syria, is due to step down from the presidency by November 23 and government supporters see the vote as the opportunity to put one of their own in the post.

But Hezbollah and its allies have vowed to block any candidate they do not approve and they can do so by boycotting the ballots, preventing the needed two-thirds quorum of 85 votes.

If no candidate is agreed on by the time Lahoud steps down, Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and his cabinet would automatically take on executive powers.

If that happens, opposition supporters have said Lahoud might appoint a second government, a step many fear would break up the country.

SHOTLIST:

1. Exterior of parliament building

2. Lebanese flag

3. Various of legislators arriving at parliament

4. Tilt up armed Lebanese soldier

5. Various of members of parliament (MPs) entering parliament building

6. Various of meeting inside parliament

7. Various of Walid Jumblatt, senior Druse leader at the meeting

8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Musbah Al-Ahdab, Pro-government Lebanese MP:

"The parliament has been totally paralysed and I think that we need to find a constitutional platform, we need to have this parliament to start working again in order to avoid all the tension that we are seeing in the streets and mostly that the situation has become very tense inside of the country and even regionally. So it is about time to bring back discussions where discussions should be, I mean in the parliament, the Lebanese parliament."

9. Wide of camera operators

10. Exterior of Ein El-Tineh palace

11. Nabih Berri heading to the news conference

12. Cutaway of reporters

13. Close of note taking

14. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Nabih Berri, Lebanese Speaker of the House:

"In post Ta'ef Lebanon there is no authority without a council of ministers. The authority is also for the whole council of ministers. The authority is for the whole parliament. Who said that you can deal with the issue in such a way? Therefore the parliament will not meet with this diminished (in number) government, only when it is fully restored (in terms of numbers) in one way or another. But this does not mean that there (inaudible) should be no sessions for the parliament. This is not a threat."

15. Cutaway cameramen

16. Reporters writing

17. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Nabih Berri, Lebanese Speaker of the House:

"As long as their aim is to terminate the dialogue ... my answer is: 'to continue the dialogue and extend hands until we save Lebanon."

18. Wide of Berri leaving conference

STORYLINE:

Pro-government lawmakers and their Hezbollah rivals on Tuesday dampened hopes that recent negotiations between the two camps in Lebanon would lead to an end to the country's four month long political crisis.

Several rounds of talks this month between Saad Hariri, head of the pro-government parliament majority, and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri from

opposition ranks aligned with Hezbollah, defused some of the tension permeating Lebanon and revived hopes of a reconciliation.

But tensions escalated anew Tuesday, with 45 pro-government legislators gathering in the parliament to protest Berri's refusal to convene a session

on the crisis.

Musbah Al-Ahdab, a pro-government Member of Parliament (MP) said the Lebanese parliament had "been totally paralysed."

"I think that we need to find a constitutional platform, we need to have this parliament to start working again," he said. "It is about time to bring back discussions where discussions should be, I mean in the parliament, the Lebanese parliament."

Berri has said he would not convene the parliament before opposition demands for a national unity government are met.

He has also said that even though the constitution stipulates the parliament convene for the spring session on the first Tuesday after March 15, this was not mandatory.

Walid Jumblatt, a Druse lawmaker and key government supporter, accused Berri of "hijacking" the parliament upon orders from Iran and Syria - the

main Hezbollah backers.

Dialogue, said Jumblatt, can only be beneficial in parliament.

Berri lashed back at a news conference later on Tuesday, accusing the parliamentary majority of blocking efforts for a settlement to the crisis.

He said that the parliament would only meet with the government when it is fully restored.

" The parliament will not meet with this diminished (in number) government only when it is fully restored (in terms of numbers) in one way or another. But this does not mean that there (inaudible) should be no sessions for the parliament. This is not a threat," Berri said.

Berri also criticised Tuesday's protest in parliament which he said was held mostly by legislators belonging to Hariri's parliamentary bloc who aimed to" terminate the dialogue."

"My answer is: 'to continue the dialogue and extend hands until we save Lebanon," Berri said.

Hariri is Sunni Muslim and his community backs Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's pro-Western government.

Berri is a Shiite Muslim, and his party Amal and its Hezbollah ally draw their support from the country's Shiite community.

The Christian community has lent more support to the anti-government faction than the pro-government.

The Hezbollah-led opposition has been staging protests and an open ended sit in downtown Beirut since December 1 in a bid to topple Saniora's government.

The opposition demands the government give it a veto-wielding share of the Cabinet.

Saniora has refused this, and is supported by the majority in parliament.

The confrontation has stirred political and sectarian tensions that have threatened to tear the country apart.

Nine people were killed in street clashes since December between pro- and anti-government supporters.

The opposition and Lebanon's pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud consider Saniora's government to be illegal after five Shiite ministers and a pro-Hezbollah Christian minister resigned in November.

The pro-government, anti-Syrian camp wants parliament to convene so that it can give the go-ahead for the creation of an international tribunal to try

suspects in the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The Hezbollah-led front has demanded modifications to the proposal for the international court.

SHOTLIST:

1. Exterior of parliament building

2. Lebanese flag

3. Various of legislators arriving at parliament

4. Tilt up armed Lebanese soldier

5. Various of members of parliament (MPs) entering parliament building

6. Various of meeting inside parliament

7. Various of Walid Jumblatt, senior Druse leader at the meeting

8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Musbah Al-Ahdab, Pro-government Lebanese MP:

"The parliament has been totally paralysed and I think that we need to find a constitutional platform, we need to have this parliament to start working again in order to avoid all the tension that we are seeing in the streets and mostly that the situation has become very tense inside of the country and even regionally. So it is about time to bring back discussions where discussions should be, I mean in the parliament, the Lebanese parliament."

9. Wide of camera operators

10. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Ali Bazzi, Anti-government Lebanese MP:

"There is dialogue and meetings going on between the speaker of the house Nabih Berri and Sheikh Saad Hariri (head of the majority legislators). We consider this atmosphere of exaggeration and escalation to be a stab for this dialogue and the meetings which are going on. It seems that they (majority legislators) have deprived the government of its legitimacy, constitutionality and credibility and now they are trying to deprive the parliament of its legitimacy."

11. Lebanese security forces

STORYLINE:

Majority legislators gathered in the Lebanese Parliament building in Beirut on Tuesday, to urge the Lebanese speaker of the house, Nabih Berri, to open the first session of parliament for the year.

The pro-government anti-Syrian camp wants Parliament to convene so that the creation of an international tribunal to try suspects in the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri could be ratified.

The Hezbollah-led front has demanded modifications to the proposal for the international court.

On Tuesday, key negotiations were ongoing between Berri and Saad Hariri, the head of the majority legislators.

Saad Hariri is a Sunni Muslim and his community backs Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's pro-Western government.

Berri is a Shiite Muslim, and his party Amal and its Hezbollah ally draw their support from the country's Shiite community.

The Christian community has lent more support to the anti-government faction than the pro-government.

Pro-government legislators launched a scathing attack on Berri, dealing a blow to negotiations between the two sides.

Musbah Al-Ahdab, a pro-government Member of Parliament (MP) said the Lebanese parliament had "been totally paralysed."

"I think that we need to find a constitutional platform, we need to have this parliament to start working again," he said. "It is about time to bring back discussions where discussions should be, I mean in the parliament, the Lebanese parliament."

Another MP, senior Druse leader Walid Jumblatt, accused Berri of hijacking parliament upon orders from Iran and Syria.

Anti-government MPs however said Tuesday's gathering in parliament would undermine dialogue between Berri and Hariri.

"We consider this atmosphere of exaggeration and escalation to be a stab for this dialogue and the meetings which are going on," MP Ali Bazzi said.

"It seems that they (majority legislators) have deprived the government of its legitimacy, constitutionality and credibility and now they are trying to deprive the parliament of its legitimacy," he added.

The opposition and Lebanon's pro-Syrian President, Emile Lahoud, considers Saniora's government to be unconstitutional after five Shiite ministers and a pro-Hezbollah Christian minister resigned in November.