Beirut - Visiting former US President Jimmy Carter said Thursday during his meeting with Lebanese parliamentarians and politicians that he would study the possibility of sending a Carter Centre representative to monitor the 2009 elections if Lebanese authorities agreed.

"The inspectors would not intervene in the electoral process, but would try to implement the electoral law," Carter told Lebanese MPs at the parliament house in downtown Beirut.

Beirut - Officials from the radical Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah have refused to meet former US president Jimmy Carter, who is on a two-day visit to Lebanon, Carter's spokesman Rick Jafculca said Wednesday.

Carter requested the meeting with the Iran-backed movement, which is listed as a terrorist group by Washington, as part of a visit to Lebanon to assess whether his Carter Centre will monitor a legislative election next year.

Beirut - Sunni fundamentalist group Fatah al-Islam said its leader may have been "captured or killed" and it has named his successor, local radios reported Wednesday.

Shaker al-Abssi and two other members of the group were ambushed in Syria while trying to meet with other Islamic militants from Iraq and Afghanistan, the Voice of Lebanon radio station quoted a Fatah al- Islam statement as saying.

The three were either captured or killed during the gunfight with members of the Syrian security forces, the radio said.

Abu Mohamad Awad had been named to succeed Abssi at the head of Fatah al-Islam, the group said.

Beirut  - Thirty cheerful clowns from Germany, Italy, Morocco and Lebanon cheered the Lebanese public Tuesday by dancing in the rain in the capital Beirut.

Wearing rainbow-colored wigs and red plastic noses, the clowns put on a show in the main shopping district of Hamra street, bringing cheer to Lebanese children on the second day of the Muslim al-Adha holiday.

Some clowns walked on stilts as others danced, juggled, blew up balloons and took pictures with the crowd that gathered to watch the show in the pouring rain.

"It is meant to introduce street performances and comic relief as a way to deal with tense situations and conflict," said Tonnie Selwood Choeiri, one of the organizers.

Beirut  - Former US president Jimmy Carter arrived in Beirut Tuesday on a two-day official visit to discuss the process of the upcoming Lebanese parliamentary elections and the prospects for peace in the Middle East region, a Lebanese government source said.

The Carter Centre said Friday that Carter would lead a pre- electoral assessment mission in Lebanon. The centre is considering observing parliamentary elections scheduled for the spring of 2009.

Carter is due to address Lebanese students, faculty staff and invited guests at the American University of Beirut on December 12.

Carter also plans to visit Syria and meet with President Bashar al- Assad and other officials.

Beirut  - Lebanon's Western-backed Prime Minister Fouad Seniora has agreed with Iranian officials to draw up a framework for bilateral cooperation between the two nations ahead of a possible visit by Seniora to Tehran, a governmental source said Monday.

Mohammad Shibani, Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, met with the prime minister over the weekend and renewed his invitation for Seniora to visit Tehran, the source, who requsted anonymity, said.