Lebanese president urges politicians to name his successor in his farewell speech

BEIRUT – Lebanon's president has called for the country's squabbling politicians to choose a successor to his post as he steps down.

President Michel Suleiman spoke Saturday during a farewell speech to end his six-year term. Lebanese politicians haven't been able to agree on a successor to Suleiman, whose term ends Sunday.

The power vacuum comes as Lebanon struggles to deal with the fallout from the civil war in neighboring Syria.

Lebanon's national unity government will administer the country while a new president is selected.

The absence of a president is chiefly a setback for Lebanon's Christian community, whose influence has diminished since the country's 1975-90 war.

In Lebanon's power-sharing system, the president must be Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the parliament speaker a Shiite Muslim.