Beirut- Lebanon's Shiite House Speaker Nabih Berri and head of the ruling anti-Syrian majority Saad Hariri agreed on Thursday to remove all political insignia, starting with a three-day campaign throughout Beirut.

"All pictures representing rival political leaders and slogans will be removed from the Beirut streets in the coming three days," sources close to Hariri told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Hariri said after a meeting with Berri that "all efforts were under way to implement peace and security in the capital."

Hariri stressed said it was essential to calm the situation throughout Lebanon.

Lebanon has been engulfed in an 18-month political crisis that almost led the country into new strife similar to the 1975-1990 civil war.

In May, Shiite Hezbollah gunmen seized nearly all of the Lebanese capital's Muslim sector from Sunni foes loyal to Hariri and the US- backed government Prime Minister Fouad Seniora.

The fighting came to an end after seven-days of street fighting when rival Lebanese leaders gathered in Doha and signed an accord to stop the clashes.

But since then, sporadic clashes have been erupting in various sectors of the capital between followers of the rival groups, and it has spread on occasions outside the capital to reach northern and eastern Lebanon. (dpa)