BEIRUT (AFP) -- Arab League chief Amr Mussa has urged political leaders in Lebanon in remarks published not to escalate the country's political crisis and to help ensure the success of an aid conference.

Mussa appealed to "all Lebanese leaders not to engage in escalation", Lebanese newspapers reported on the 50th day of a pro-Syrian opposition protest aimed at bringing down the Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.

"I urge both the opposition and those in power to do all they can to ensure the success of the Paris III conference", he said Friday, adding that he expects to resume mediation efforts later this month in a bid to resolve the political divisions gripping the country.

"I expect to return to Lebanon after the Paris III conference," he told the As-Safir daily, referring to an international aid conference for Lebanon being held in the French capital on January 25.

Mussa said he hoped for a resolution before the Arab summit in March to the political feuding in Lebanon, where the Hezbollah-led opposition has since December 1 last year staged weeks of demonstrations against Siniora's anti-Damascus government.

In mid-December the Arab League chief began mediating between the opposition and government in Beirut in an effort to resolve the crisis sparked when six pro-Syrian ministers -- five of them Shiite -- resigned from Siniora's cabinet in November.

Their resignations were followed by massive demonstrations and a continuing sit-in outside government offices in the centre of the capital.

The pro-Syrian speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri, said on Friday that he supported the Paris III donor meeting. "President Berri supports the Paris III conference," he said in a statement received by AFP. It said the ministers in Berri's parliamentary bloc who quit in November "approved before their resignation the economic and financial projects aimed at securing aid and long-term loans for Lebanon."

The Paris III conference aims to help Lebanon to reduce its public debt, currently running at $41 billion (32 billion euros).

It is expected to be attended by Western countries and oil-rich Arab states which back the Siniora government and its elected anti-Syrian parliamentary majority.