Lebanese President Emile Lahoud on Friday appointed Najib Mikati, a moderate former minister with close ties to Syria, as new prime minister who must now form a cabinet to call parliamentary elections on time.

Mikati, a 49-year-old Sunni Muslim lawmaker, had won the nomination of the country's 128-member parliament, local reports said.

Earlier in the day, some 37 anti-Syrian opposition lawmakers backed former Public Works Minister Mikati as prime minister in brief consultations with President Lahoud.

Opposition lawmakers said they supported Mikati because he pledged to hold parliamentary elections as scheduled in May but not run himself, and remove pro-Syrian security chiefs.

Mikati, a wealthy businessman and personal friend of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, now faces the daunting task of forming a new government which is to adopt a new electoral law and lead the country to the general elections before the term of the current parliament expires on May 31.

Lebanon has plunged into political turmoil since pro-Syrian prime minister Karami resigned on Feb. 28 under the weight of huge protests sparked by the assassination of his predecessor Rafik al- Hariri on Feb. 14 in a Beirut car bombing.

Karami was reappointed as prime minister on March 10 but he resigned once again on Wednesday after failing to form a new national unity government.

The US and French envoys to Lebanon called Friday for the cabinet formation as quickly as possible to guarantee timely elections.

"Our focus right now is on supporting Lebanon having free elections taking place on schedule," US ambassador Jeffrey Feltman said after meeting Lebanese foreign minister Mahmud Hammud.

Syria, under mounting pressure to quit Lebanon since the killing of Hariri, has promised to withdraw all its troops and intelligence agents from Lebanon by April 30 in line with a UN Security Council resolution.