“We have reached agreement on a 24-member government,” Siniora had told reporters earlier after holding mandatory consultations on the cabinet with the under-fire pro-Syrian head of state.

It was the first elected government since the last Syrian troop left Lebanese soil under intense domestic and international pressure in April, ending a three-decade military presence.

Siniora has pledged to try to rebuild national unity shaken by the killing in February of his close ally, former billionaire prime minister Rafiq Hariri, and embark on sweeping reforms to revive the debt-laden economy.

In the weeks since his nomination last month, Siniora had been scrambling to form a new government in the face of mounting tensions with Damascus, which has dominated Lebanon politically since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.

Washington and Paris, the sponsors of UN Resolution 1559 calling for Syria’s withdrawal and Hezbollah’s disarmament, voiced concern over the delay in setting up a new government.

After failing to form a government of national unity and then a cabinet of technocrats, Siniora said Friday he intended to form a government from a broad spectrum of parties including the pro-Syrian Hezbollah-Amal alliance.

Hezbollah, which continues to be involved in sporadic clashes with Israel on the tense border, exclusively patrols the formerly Israeli-occupied south.

Its participation in the new government is likely to pose a problem for the international community which is demanding that Hezbollah’s militiamen -- regarded in Lebanon as a legitimate resistance to Israel -- give up their weapons.

The government will also include members of a 72-strong coalition including supporters of the Future Current Movement of Hariri’s son Saad Hariri, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and some Christian MPs.

The Hezbollah-Amal alliance has some 30 MPs.

“They now have a significant bloc of parliamentarians and most likely, Hezbollah will also have ministers in the new Lebanese government,” UN special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen said after briefing EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.

“Remaining as a militia when they are a party in government might look a bit odd,” Roed-Larsen was quoted as saying by the Lebanese press.

But the new government does not include the alliance of former exiled Christian MP Michel Aoun, which has 21 MPs in the 128-seat parliament.

Siniora, a Sunni Muslim, was the faithful right-hand man in both business and politics of Rafiq Hariri. He oversaw Hariri’s huge Arab banking interests and also ran the nation’s finances in all five of the governments the late tycoon headed between 1992 and 2004.

Under Lebanon’s political system, the country’s prime minister, who is always drawn from the Sunni community, must gain the approval for his government from the president, a post reserved for Christians.

Lahoud meanwhile signed a parliament bill granting amnesty to Samir Geagea, the leader of a wartime Christian militia who has been serving a life sentence in jail since 1994, as well as some 30 militants.