Qatari-led mediators gave rival Lebanese leaders one more day on Tuesday to reach a deal aimed at ending a political crisis which brought their country to the brink of civil war.

Qatar's minister of state for foreign affairs Ahmad Abdullah al-Mahmood said the mediators had put forward two proposals to try to break the deadlock between the US-supported ruling coalition and the Hezbollah-backed opposition.

'We hope that the two sides agree on one of these proposals,' Mahmood told reporters, reading from a statement.

'One of the sides asked for one extra day to respond to these proposals ... and the committee agreed to give a one day deadline till tomorrow.'    

The negotiations in Doha, which aim to prevent Lebanon sliding back into sectarian strife, follow the Arab League's intervention last week to end the country's worst domestic fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war.

The two sides are trying to agree a new elections law and the sharing of cabinet seats in a unity government. The opposition has demanded effective veto power in the new cabinet.

Agreement on those two issues would pave the way for parliament to elect army commander General Michel Suleiman as president, a post that has been vacant since November.

The rivals had reached deadlock on Monday over the electoral division of Beirut -- the bedrock of support for Saad al-Hariri, a Sunni Muslim leader of the US-backed ruling coalition and close ally of Saudi Arabia.

The boundaries of electoral constituencies will help shape the outcome of parliamentary polls in 2009.

Lebanese politics, built around sectarian power-sharing, have been crippled since November 2006 when the ruling coalition's refusal to yield to the opposition demands for a veto power triggered the resignation of all Shi'ite ministers.

Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah used its military muscle this month to thwart a government attempt to limit its power, briefly seizing parts of Beirut in fighting that killed 81 people.

Its defeat of Sunni and Druze pro-government gunmen raised sectarian tension and brought the country to the brink of war.

The United States blames Syria and Iran, both of which back Hezbollah, for the group's offensive this month.

The ruling coalition has demanded clear guarantees that Hezbollah would not turn its guns on Lebanese rivals again and that the fate of those weapons would be debated in Lebanon soon.

But the issue of Hezbollah's guns is not on the official agenda at Doha and the group has refused to discuss it. - Reuters