Saad Hariri, who won Lebanon’s parliamentary elections in June, has been asked to restart stalled negotiations to form a government by president Michel Suleiman.

Mr Hariri, the leader of the western-backed March 14 parliamentary bloc, resigned the commission last week after running into opposition from the parliamentary minority, which includes the armed Hizbollah movement. He had been attempting to form a government of national unity, including all the country’s major groups, but the minority did not agree with his proposed cabinet line-up.