BEIRUT (Financial Times) -- Saad Hariri begins consultations on Monday with all political factions after being designated Lebanon’s prime minister at the weekend and charged with forming a government.

Mr. Hariri, son of the murdered ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, led his western-backed March 14 bloc to poll victory on June 7. His cabinet-forming task could take weeks.
His appointment by President Michel Suleiman was greeted with hours of fireworks and celebratory gunfire in the Sunni Muslim neighborhoods of Beirut on Saturday.
Mr. Hariri has been the leader of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority for the last four years but he had left the post of prime minister to his late father’s confidant, Fouad Siniora. After the elections Mr. Hariri told the Financial Times that he had, “learned much” over the past four years.
His task is not expected to be an easy one. He is facing a demand by the opposition, which includes the Islamic resistance movement Hizbollah, to maintain a veto over important cabinet decisions and appointments.
In Lebanon’s complex sectarian political system, Mr. Hariri will be expected to include all of the country’s major groups in his new government. A walk-out of all Shia ministers, belonging to Hizbollah and its ally Amal, in 2006 sparked years of protests which culminated in violent street battles last year. That crisis was solved only after the majority agreed to give the opposition the veto that it sought.
The March 14 bloc has said that it will not again agree to give the opposition such veto power. Mr. Hariri has said that he seeks an “effective” government.
But Mr Hariri has also struck a conciliatory note after the elections and he has met with Hizbollah’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. the Islamic resistance movement Hizbollah is adamant about keeping its arms, in spite of UN resolutions that call for the disarming of all factions.
The opposition, which also includes the large Christian party FPM of former general Michel Aoun, is expected to negotiate as one bloc. “The whole opposition is entering the government or will stay out as a whole,” said Alain Aoun, an FPM MP.
He said that he did not yet see a solution to the disagreement over the veto but that negotiations were just starting. He warned that just “verbal promises” to the opposition would not be enough because, he said, “there is a trust crisis”.
Mr. Hariri’s ability to reach consensus will be tested in this formation stage of the government, which could take several weeks. But the real test of his leadership will come once he has succeeded in forming a government, said Paul Salem, head of the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut.
Under Lebanon’s sectarian power sharing system the prime minister has to be a Sunni and Mr. Hariri now is the pre-eminent Sunni leader. “If he is successful he is in for the next generation. He’ll be back again and again for the next 15 years,” said Mr. Salem.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese army said on Sunday it would open fire on any armed person appearing on the streets, after a brief clash between supporters of rival political factions in western Beirut killed one person.
Gunfire erupted in the Aicha Bakkar area when followers of a group clashed with supporters of Amal, which is led by parliament speaker Nabih Berri.
Security sources said one woman was killed, and two people were wounded.
“This is an isolated incident between the groups’ supporters on the back of the elections in Lebanon. The groups’ leadership have nothing to do with it,” a security source told Reuters.
Photo: Lebanese majority leader lawmaker Saad Hariri gestures as he arrives at the Parliament for the election of the house speaker in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, June 25, 2009. (AP/Hussein Malla