Candidates backed by anti-Syrian Christian leader Michel Aoun swept the third stage of Lebanon's parliamentary election in Christian districts of Mount Lebanon, official results showed Monday.

The Free Patriotic Movement led by Aoun won 15 out of 16 seats up for grabs in the Maronite Christian heartlands northeast of Beirut in Sunday's polls, Interior Minister Hassan Sabei said.

This victory by Aoun, a former military commander who returned from 14 years of exile on May 7, dealt a blow to other anti-Syrian candidates.

On May 24, Aoun announced to field his own candidates to stand in the election, breaking up with his anti-Syrian allies of Muslims and Druze.

This decision came after Aoun failed to reach agreements with his opposition allies to field a joint list to compete in the four- stage election spanning from May 29 to June 19 in four Sundays.

During the third stage, there were altogether 58 seats up for grabs in central and eastern Lebanon, nearly half the seats in the 128-member parliament.

The opposition led by son of the assassinated former premier Rafik Hariri won all 19 seats in Beirut in the first stage on May 29, and pro-Syrian Hezbollah and its allies won all 23 seats in southern Lebanon in the second stage.

Twenty eight seats are up for grabs on June 19 in the fourth and last stage of the election in northern Lebanon.

The election is the first in nearly 30 years without a foreign military presence in Lebanon.

Lebanese opposition, mainly consisting of Sunni Arabs, Christian Maronites and Druze, was the main driving force behind a Syrian pullout from Lebanon late April, ending Syria's 29-year military presence in its tiny neighbor.

Source: Xinhua