Beirut - The fourth round of the national dialogue between rival Lebanese leaders ended Monday with no major decisions and a postponement of the next round to March 2, 2009.

President Michel Suleiman who chaired the session, began the meeting with a briefing of local, regional and international developments, especially the Israeli military onslaught in the Gaza Strip and its impact on Lebanon.

The president also underlined the need for a political truce as Lebanon's parliamentary elections approached. Lebanon is due to hold its parliamentary elections in May.

The dialogue participants stressed the importance of Lebanese consensus on the rejection of the resettlement of some 367,000 Palestinians refugees living in 12 camps across Lebanon, and the need to continue dialogue on a defence strategy and Palestinian arms outside the camps.

According to sources close to some of the participants, there was no progress in the formation of a committee tasked with studying the possibility of a national defence strategy as some parties had failed to designate their representatives to the committee.

The main topic at the national dialogue is Hezbollah arms. According to UN resolution 1701, Hezbollah and various Palestinian groups should be disarmed, and the Lebanese army should be the only armed force in the country.

Hezbollah claims that they should retain their arms to defend against any Israeli attack on Lebanon.

Resolution 1701 ended 33 days of war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006. (dpa)