BEIRUT: Prime Minister Saad Hariri sounded upbeat Tuesday about breaking the monthslong deadlock over an electoral law, saying he expected an agreement on a new voting system to be reached within the next few days.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed Tuesday to continue supporting Lebanon to help it cope with the heavy burden of hosting over 1 million Syrian refugees.

Merkel spoke at a joint news conference with Hariri in Berlin. The Lebanese premier visited Germany as part of a three-nation European tour aimed at drumming up financial support from the international community to help Lebanon face the dire economic consequences of hosting as many as 1.5 million Syrian refugees, based on Lebanese government estimates, whose presence is straining the country’s struggling economy and weak infrastructure.

After Monday visiting Paris, where he held talks with French President Francois Hollande on the Syrian refugee problem, and Berlin, Hariri arrived in Brussels Tuesday night on the final leg of his European trip, his first since he was reappointed prime minister in November last year.

“Lebanon today is passing through a new era and a new [presidential] term. Thank God, we have passed the difficult stage and we are today heading with clear steps with a government that has a clear policy statement,” Hariri said during a meeting with Lebanese expatriates in Brussels Tuesday night.

Referring to Cabinet’s approval last week of the 2017 draft state budget, Hariri said, “We have endorsed the [draft] budget and we will have a new electoral law within days.”

His remarks come as rival factions remain sharply split over what voting system to adopt for the upcoming parliamentary elections. While the Free Patriotic Movement, Hezbollah and the Amal Movement support a proportional vote law, the Future Movement and the Lebanese Forces back a hybrid law that blends provisions of the proportional and winner-take-all systems.

Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil’s latest hybrid vote proposal that calls for electing half of Parliament’s 128 members under a majoritarian system and the other half under a proportional formula in different districts has failed to break the deadlock after the proposal was spurned by MP Walid Jumblatt’s bloc and the Marada Movement, while it drew reservations from Hezbollah and the Amal Movement.

Only the LF, the FPM’s key ally, has welcomed Bassil’s proposal.

MP Ibrahim Kanaan from the FPM confirmed that the LF supported Bassil’s plan. “We discussed with Dr. Geagea several issues, particularly a parliamentary electoral law and the subject of state finances. Concerning an electoral law, we stressed that the FPM and the Lebanese Forces are in agreement on Minister Gebran Bassil’s latest proposal,” Kanaan said after meeting Tuesday with LF chief Samir Geagea at the latter’s residence in Maarab, north of Beirut.

Parliamentary elections were originally scheduled to take place between May 21 and June 21, but Hariri and Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk have spoken of a technical delay of a few months to facilitate the implementation of a new vote law to replace the disputed 1960 majoritarian system.

Addressing Lebanese expats in Brussels, Hariri reiterated his call on the international community to help Lebanon deal with the refugee crisis.

“We are hosting 1.5 million Syrian refugees. We did a favor to the entire world by accommodating this number of refugees and the world should contribute toward accommodating the refugees,” he said.

Hariri was scheduled to meet with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres Tuesday night before addressing Wednesday the “Brussels Conference on Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region.” Hariri will deliver a speech at the conference highlighting the Lebanese government’s plan to consolidate stability and development and face pressure on infrastructure and public services as a result of displaced Syrians.The conference in Brussels will bring together representatives from 70 national delegations, major donors, and humanitarian and development organizations to assess where the international community stands in regard to fulfilling commitments made at the London conference in February 2016.

In London, leaders had pledged some $11 billion to help fund assistance, including schools, shelter and jobs for refugees and host communities.

Hariri’s talks with Merkel touched on bilateral relations and developments in the region, according to a statement released by the premier’s media office. It said that discussions continued over a lunch hosted by Merkel.

Speaking at a joint news conference ahead of her meeting with Hariri in Berlin, Merkel praised Lebanon for hosting this large number of Syrian refugees, pledging that Germany would continue its support for the country.

“Lebanon hosts more than 1 million Syrian refugees, and you can imagine the sheer dimension of this burden as compared to the size of the state and its population,” Merkel said. “It shows a great humanitarian spirit and gesture, and I would like to pay my respect to the Lebanese people for hosting this large number of refugees, especially if we look at the fragile and very difficult situation in your country and this represents an enormous task.”

Noting that Germany is the second-largest donor country to Lebanon with 286 million euros donated last year, she said: “We are trying to help Lebanon to weather this crisis.” Merkel aded that Syria as the largest neighboring country for Lebanon, “which is why very few other countries are as directly affected as Lebanon by what is happening on the ground in Syria.”

“This is why obviously we will exchange views on the possibilities to settle the conflict in Syria by political means,” she said. “We will continue to keep an eye on Lebanon. We will continue to support the country.”

For his part, Hariri reiterated that the Syrian refugee influx into Lebanon has imposed economic and social burdens on the country’s infrastructure.

“Today the Lebanese, who are 4 million, are hosting 1.5 million displaced Syrians, and around 500,000 Palestinian refugees. This has created a strain on our economy, our infrastructure and our social fabric. To give you a measure, it is as if the European Union was expected to host 250 million refugees, starting tomorrow morning,” he said.

Hariri added that by hosting the Syrian refugees, Lebanon today was “providing a public good on behalf of the world.” He said that he would reveal “Lebanon's vision for stabilization and development” in his speech Wednesday at the Brussels conference, which Germany is co-hosting.

Declaring that Lebanon offers “a model of coexistence and dialogue” to the region and the world, he said: “It is today an oasis of peace in a volatile region.”

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