ROUNDUP: US freezes assets of pro-Syrian agitators in Lebanon

For the first time, the United States has placed sanctions on figures in Lebanon and Syria who it says are seeking to undermine democracy in Lebanon.

The US Department of the Treasury Monday froze the US-based assets of four people, including a member of the Lebanese parliament and well-placed Syrian officials, charging that they are agitating for and promoting the return of Syrian influence in the country.

Officials named Assaad Halim Hardan, a member of the Lebanese Parliament and chief of the Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party (SSNP); Wi'am Wahhab, a former member of Lebanon's parliament; Hafiz Makhluf, a colonel in Syria's General Intelligence Directorate; and Muhammad Nasif Khayrbik, a key advisor to Syria's president.

In a statement, the US charged that the individuals have been affiliated with "designated terrorist organizations" such as Hezbollah or with Syria's efforts to resume its role as power broker that it played for 30 years leading up to 2005.

The move prohibits American citizens from engaging in transactions with the four people.

The SSNP, under Hardan, had received arms and military training from Syria and the Shiite militia group Hezbollah, the treasury department said. Makhluf is a a maternal cousin to Syrian president Bashar Assad and well placed to support "the reassertion of Syrian control" in Lebanon.

Khayrbik is Syria's deputy vice president for security affairs, and has worked closely with Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, the US officials charged.

Lebanon is to choose a new president by late November, but political turmoil, a succession of political assassinations aimed at figures who oppose Syrian influence and militant threats by the well- organized Hezbollah threaten to derail the process.

Last month, US President George W Bush warned Syria not to interfere the elections.

The treasury department charged that Syria has bribed politicians, interfered with the election of the new president, supported violence and provided arms to "illicit Lebanese militias and Palestinian terrorist groups.

"Syria has used all means at its disposal - from bribery to intimidation to violence - to undermine the legitimate political process in Lebanon," said Stuart Levey, under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence in the treasury department.

Last week, a United Nations report blamed Iran and Syria for continuing to breach an arms embargo across Lebanon's ill-defined borders put in place in August 2006 as part of a ceasefire that ended the summer war between Hezbollah militias and the Israeli Defence Forces.

A UN peacekeeping operation and the Lebanese army have been monitoring the agreement in southern Lebanon.

In 2005, Syria formally withdrew from Lebanon under pressure from public protest and the international community following the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri, a leading supporter of Syria's withdrawal. A UN-led investigation has pointed its finger as Syria for being an instigator in the massive bombing that killed Hariri and many others.

The treasury department charged that Syria has been intimidating Lebanese who are calling for the establishment of an international tribunal to try Hariri's killers.

Hariri's son, Saad Hariri, who is Lebanon's parliamentary majority leader, met last week in Paris with Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun, who is a close ally of Hezbollah, to seek a solution that would allow the elections to go forward.

The Western-backed government - and its Christian, Druze and Sunni supporters - want the next president to be independent of Syrian influence.

The opposition wants a supporter of Hezbollah's "armed resistance" and wants to prevent the government from installing a president aligned with the US and Europe against Syria and Hizbollah.

The attempt to choose a successor to Lahoud before he steps down has become Lebanon's most serious political crisis since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.