Lebanon has sent two separate delegations to Wednesday's Arab summit in Riyadh, underscoring the deep divisions still plaguing the country since the civil war ended 17 years ago.
Beirut is represented by both pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud and by a delegation led by Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.
Lahoud was officially invited as head of state, but after bids to form a single delegation failed, Siniora - backed by Arab heavyweights Egypt and Saudi Arabia - also received an invitation.
"As long as the Americans do not engage in dialogue with Syria, and as long as there is no true reconciliation between Damascus and Riyadh, the Lebanon crisis will endure," the Arab League representative in Beirut Abdelrahman Solh said.
Siniora said in a weekend television interview that his invitation was "Arab and international recognition - after gaining local recognition - of the legitimacy of the government."
Lahoud and the Damascus-backed opposition consider the Siniora government "illegitimate" since all Shiite Muslim ministers resigned last November.
The country has since been paralysed as the opposition insists on an enlarged cabinet in which it would wield a veto - a demand rejected by the ruling majority.
The government accuses the opposition of acting under Syrian pressure to paralyse political institutions and block the creation of an international tribunal to try suspects in the February 2005 murder of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri.
His killing - blamed on Syria - triggered domestic and international protests which forced Damascus to end 29 years of military presence and political domination of its neighbour.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said on Monday there was still a chance to end the crisis, which has threatened to plunge Lebanon back into violence and chaos last seen in the 1975-1990 civil war, especially after deadly January street clashes between Shiites and Sunnis.
Saudi Arabia, a Sunni powerhouse supporting Siniora, and Shiite Iran have twice this year discussed how to curb the confessional disputes.
Lebanese Justice Minister Charles Rizk said he regretted "divisions among the Lebanese which could cause Arab divisions at the summit" in an apparent reference to rifts between Saudi Arabia and Syria.
"I fear that the resolution of the crisis is not in the hands of the Lebanese, it is being referred to the Arab summit. And the reason is that we, the Lebanese, have failed to unite, and each has resorted to his regional backers," he said in a newspaper interview on Monday.
"There's an unresolved problem among Arabs as to the very existence of Lebanon as an entity, and this is very dangerous."
A summit draft resolution urges all sides in Lebanon to engage in national dialogue and do everything in their power to end current divisions.
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