By Edith Honan UNITED NATIONS, Oct 9 (Reuters) - The leader of Lebanon's majority party on Tuesday urged the United Nations to step up its condemnation of political violence in Lebanon, as the country struggles to elect a president. At a meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Saad al-Hariri raised a string of assassinations that has targeted members of the March 14 bloc, an anti-Syrian faction that he leads, Hariri told reporters at the United Nations. Christian lawmaker Antoine Ghanem last month became the seventh anti-Syrian politician killed in Lebanon since the 2005 murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, Saad's father. On Sept. 25, Lebanon's deadlocked parliament failed to elect a new head of state to replace pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, whose term expires on Nov. 23. Parliament is expected to reconvene on Oct. 23. "We asked for a more hardened position from the United Nations in face of those assassinations and what's happening in Lebanon," Hariri said after meeting Ban. He called on the international community to "move on those who commit these crimes in a very swift way." Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. Ambassador, said he would be meeting Hariri later in the day. "We'll be very supportive, obviously," he said. "We want the presidential election to take place in a timely manner. We want no interference in the process by outsiders in electing a president." The Bush administration, pressing a campaign of diplomatic isolation of Syria, has repeatedly accused it of trying to destabilize Lebanon. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, who met Hariri earlier, said he hoped elections were held in a "timely and an amicable manner." The voting reflects deep fissures among legislators in Lebanon who want to align the country with the West and those which favor close ties with Syria and Iran. Failure to elect a president before Lahoud's term ends could prompt the outgoing head of state to name an interim administration, setting the stage for two rival governments to compete for power and risking more instability. The March 14 bloc had hoped to elect one of its own members in the first presidential election since Syrian troops were forced to leave Lebanon in 2005 after Hariri's assassination. "When you have somebody trying to affect or interfere with trying to elect a president in Lebanon and trying to push his own agenda for a president that (he) is close to, let's say, Syria or other countries, we refuse that," Hariri said.
