A parliamentary session to elect a Lebanese president has been postponed from Tuesday to April 22 amid a continued deadlock between rival political leaders, the parliament speaker's office announced on Monday.

“Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has decided to postpone the session to April 22 at noon," his spokesman, Ali Hamdan, told AFP.

The decision marks the 17th time since September that a parliament session to elect a successor to former President Emile Lahoud has failed amid a standoff between the Western- and Saudi-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition, backed by Syria and Iran.

“The speaker has said that he certainly will move up the session if a political agreement is reached beforehand,” a statement from the parliament's secretariat said.

The Lebanese presidential crisis is expected to top the agenda at this week's Arab Summit in Damascus.

Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia has announced that it will send a low-level diplomat to the meeting in retaliation for what it says is Syrian obstruction of the election of a Lebanese president.

The Arab world's most populous country, Egypt, is expected to follow suit.

Lebanon has been without a president since November, when Lahoud's term ended. The political crisis is the worst since the country's 1975-1990 civil war.

-AFP/NOW Staff