Beirut (dpa) - Lebanon's new President Michel Suleiman renamed Fouad Seniora as prime minister and tasked him with forming a national unity government on Wednesday after consultations with the opposition and majority blocs.

"Following a day of consultations and a meeting with House Speaker Nabih Berri, the president appointed Fouad Seniora as prime minister to start forming a national unity government," a statement read on behalf of the president said.

Seniora gained 68 of the 127 parliament votes during the consultations.

Earlier, Suleiman met members of the various blocs in parliament and appointment Seniora as head of a 30-member cabinet of national unity in which the Hezbollah-led opposition will have veto power over key decisions.

The formation of a unity government is a key element of a deal hammered out in Doha, Qatar last week by rival factions to end an 18- month political crisis that boiled over into deadly fighting and threatened to plunge Lebanon back into civil war.

Parliamentary majority leader, Saad Hariri, said his bloc had decided to nominate Seniora again as he was the best man for the job.

The opposition, however, made clear that it was not satisfied with the choice of Seniora, saying he did not reflect the spirit of national unity called for in last week's Arab-brokered accord reached in Doha.

Seniora, a Sunni Muslim and close ally of slain former premier Rafik Hariri, has been prime minister since 2005 and has been heading a caretaker government since Suleiman's election by parliament on Sunday.

Much of Seniora's term has been dominated by the standoff with the Hezbollah-led opposition which withdrew its ministers from his government in 2006 in a bid to force Seniora to resign. dpa