Lebanon's parliament is set to vote in army chief General Michel Suleiman as the country's 11th president on Sunday, filling a post left vacant for six months by a crisis that threatened a new civil war.

A Qatari-brokered deal between rival Lebanese leaders last week defused 18 months of political stalemate that erupted into street fighting this month and led to Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters seizing Beirut and routing government loyalists.

Members of parliament from the US-supported ruling majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition will attend a parliamentary session at 1400 GMT to elect Suleiman as president, as stipulated by the Doha agreement. The vote had been postponed 19 times because of the crisis.

The deal also calls for the formation of a national unity government where the opposition has veto power and a new law for the 2009 general election.

The agreement aims to defuse a conflict that has stoked sectarian tensions, paralyzed government and the country's constitutional institutions, and battered the economy.

Parliament has not met for more than a year and a half, during which time the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has barely functioned. Bouts of violence claimed scores of lives and revived memories of the 1975-90 civil war.

Sunday's vote will be attended by Qatar's emir and his prime minister -- the driving force behind the Doha agreement -- and a host of foreign ministers, including those of arch-rivals Syria and Saudi Arabia as well as of France, Turkey and Iran.

Saudi Arabia and France back the government while Iran and Syria support the opposition. No US administration official is expected at the session. -Reuters