May 21 (Bloomberg) -- Lebanon's Hezbollah-led opposition won a veto over cabinet decisions as the country's factions agreed to form a unity government, following talks to end a crisis that sparked the worst fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war.

General Michel Suleiman, Lebanon's army chief, will be elected president, Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassem al- Thani said today at a televised news conference in Doha, Qatar's capital. The presidential election will take place May 25, the state-run Lebanese National News Agency said.

The deal gives the opposition 11 of the 30 seats in Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's cabinet. Under existing rules, a minority of one-third plus one can block any decision.

Securing a veto ``was Hezbollah's main victory,'' said Amal Saad Ghorayeb, author of ``Hizbullah: Politics and Religion,'' a history of the Shiite Muslim movement. ``The United States will not be very happy about that.'' The government will be unable to disarm Hezbollah -- which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization -- as required by a United Nations Security Council resolution passed in 2004, he said.

Sixteen seats will be divided among Sunnis, Christian and Druze members of Siniora's coalition. The opposition also includes the Shiite Amal party and a Christian party. The president will decide the distribution of the remaining three seats.

Challenge to Authority

Violence erupted May 7 when fighters allied with Hezbollah's political party stormed Beirut neighborhoods. They were protesting Siniora's threat to shut an airport surveillance system and dismantle a covert telephone network operated by the group. Siniora's government saw the installations as a challenge to its authority.

Hezbollah regarded the phone and surveillance network as a shield against any invasion by Israel, with which its militia fought a 33-day war in 2006. The government asked that Hezbollah's weaponry be discussed at Doha; Hezbollah refused.

Hezbollah demonstrators will abandon their encampment in downtown Beirut, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said in Doha.

The U.S. described the accord as a ``necessary and positive'' step. ``There hasn't been a president. Now there will be one,'' David Welch, assistant secretary of state for Middle East affairs, told reporters in Washington. ``This is not the end of the crisis. Lebanon has to go through implementing'' the deal, he said.

Electoral Changes Blocked

The agreement dispensed with proposed electoral changes, said Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous, a political science professor at Beirut's Notre Dame University. Under the new agreement, voting areas are, with modifications, still divided along sectarian lines. The plan would have filled some parliamentary seats by proportional representation, which may have weakened the pattern of sectarian voting.

``This really has killed democratic progress in Lebanon in favor of warlord control,'' said Sensenig-Dabbous.

The Arab League, which sponsored the talks, welcomed the outcome. ``On this day everyone signed an agreement to revitalize the role of Lebanon,'' the League's secretary general, Amr Moussa, said at today's news conference. ``There is no victor, no vanquished.''

France, which has troops in the United Nations peacekeeping force in the south of Lebanon, ``remains more committed than ever to the unity, stability, sovereignty and independence of Lebanon,'' President Nicolas Sarkozy said in an e-mailed statement. ``I hope that this agreement is implemented in its entirety, to ensure its success and lay the foundation for true national reconciliation.''

Limit Cooperation

The veto power for Hezbollah may limit Lebanese cooperation in a UN special tribunal's prosecution of suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and other political murders since, said Patrick Haenni, an analyst in the Beirut office of the International Crisis Group, a conflict resolution advisory organization. ``Hezbollah can undermine the process,'' he said.

The Bush administration and Lebanese government officials have blamed Syria, an ally of Hezbollah, for the killings.

To contact the reporters on this story: Camilla Hall in London at chall24@bloomberg.net; Daniel Williams in Rome on dwilliams41@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 21, 2008 10:28 EDT