SHOTLIST

++4:3++

FILE: Exact Date Unknown

1. Mid of former Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati walking into building

2. Mikati (right) posing for photo with former Lebanese President Emile Lahoud (centre) and parliament speaker Nabih Berri (left)

++16:9++

24 January 2011

3. Wide of Beirut skyline

4. Mid of traffic

5. Man reading newspapers headlines

6. Tilt down of newspapers' headlines featuring Mikati and current caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri

7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Name not given, Beirut resident, Vox pop:

"I do not care who will win. What I do care about is keeping the calm situation in the country and being able to go to work safely."

8. Mid of traffic

STORYLINE

A moderate politician and billionaire businessman with close ties to Syria emerged Monday as a candidate favoured by Hezbollah to head Lebanon's next government.

Lawmaker Najib Mikati, who served briefly as premier in 2005, announced he is seeking the post as a candidate of "moderation and accord" in formal talks starting Monday to choose a new prime minister.

Lebanon is in the midst of a political crisis nearly two weeks after the Shiite militant group Hezbollah brought down the country's unity government, headed by Western-backed Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

Hariri said Monday he won't take part in any government headed by a Hezbollah-backed candidate.

Hariri made the announcement Monday as President Michel Suleiman began two days of consultations with lawmakers over their choice of premier.

Hezbollah wanted Hariri to renounce a UN tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of his father, prominent Sunni businessman and former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Many fear Hezbollah will react violently if its members are indicted, as is widely expected.

Ministers from the Syria- and Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies walked out of the government, forcing its collapse, after Hariri refused to disown the court which Hezbollah says lacks credibility.

Mikati, a Harvard graduate, is seen as a relatively neutral figure who enjoys good relations with Syrian President Bashar Assad and also with the pro-Western Hariri.

Mikati's candidacy brings Hezbollah and its allies closer to getting enough support to form a government on their own.

He is a founder of Mikati Communications Group, which includes Investcom, a leading Middle Eastern mobile phone company that has interests in Yemen, Syria and Cyprus.

The support of at least 65 lawmakers is required to form a government in Lebanon's 128-seat Parliament.

Hezbollah and its allies already claim 57seats.

Saad Hariri has 60.

SHOTLIST:

1. Pan of Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal and Iranian Foreign Minister Manochehr Mottaki in meeting room with other delegates

2. Close-up of Lebanese parliament speaker, Nabih Berri

3. Berri sitting between Prince Saud al-Faisal and Egyptian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Abul-Gheit at separate meeting

4. Cutaway of officials

5. Prince Saud al-Faisal leaving parliament building

++NIGHT SHOTS++

6. SOUNDBITE: (Farsi) Manochehr Mottaki, Iranian Foreign Minister: ++NON VERBATIM TRANSLATION++

"I had a very important meeting with the Lebanese President and we had an excellent exchange and our relations are well."

7. Wide of Lebanese Parliament

STORYLINE:

The Saudi and Iranian Foreign Ministers met on the sidelines of a gathering of foreign dignitaries in Beirut on Sunday, there to see Lebanon's parliament elect army commander General Michel Suleiman as the country's president in a long-delayed vote.

Representatives from both sides of the Middle East's Sunni-Shiite divide came: the foreign ministers of Syria and Iran, which support Hezbollah, and Saudi Arabia, a strong backer of the government.

"I had a very important meeting with the Lebanese President and we had an excellent exchange and our relations are well," Iranian Foreign Minister, Manochehr Mottaki, told reporters after the meetings.

Suleiman was greeted by a standing ovation from lawmakers and visiting dignitaries, as he arrived to be sworn in as the country's president.

Celebratory gunfire reverberated across the capital as news of Suleiman's election was announced, and hundreds broke out in cheers and dancing in the main square as they watched the vote on a giant screen.

The Hezbollah-led opposition and Western-backed government agreed last week to elect Suleiman as part of their deal to end an 18-month political crisis.

The presidential vote had been postponed 19 times since November when the last president, Emile Lahoud, left office.

Suleiman, a compromise candidate, ran unopposed.

He won 118 votes of the 127 living members of the legislature, according to parliament speaker Nabih Berri.

There were six blank ballots.

Two legislators voted for one-time presidential hopefuls and one was in the name "Rafik Hariri and the martyred legislators" - a reference to the slain former prime minister and five other lawmakers killed in bombings in the last three years.

After the vote, the new president was sworn in.

In his first speech, Suleiman had words to comfort both the Hezbollah-led opposition and the Western-backed government.

Suleiman called for a close relationship with neighbouring Syria, a major state supporter of Hezbollah which dominated Lebanon for almost three decades.

But he also backed the international tribunal to try killers of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a position aligned with the government's.

The Arab-mediated agreement reached on Wednesday in Qatar ended a standoff that had paralyzed Lebanon's government before boiling over into some of the worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.

It left at least 67 dead and 200 wounded.

Though the deal was a major victory for Hezbollah, most Lebanese appeared happy that the shadow of war had been lifted, at least for now.

Suleiman's election is expected to add to political stability - he has pledged to strengthen "reconciliation and understanding" among rival factions.