A Lebanese anti-Syrian alliance promised sweeping change Monday after winning control of parliament in the first elections in three decades without Syrian troops in Lebanon.

Unofficial final results for Sunday's final phase of elections in north Lebanon showed an alliance led by Saad al-Hariri the son of slain ex-Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri comfortably sweeping all remaining 28 seats, taking its overall total to 72 in the 128-member assembly.

The victory means parliament has a majority of lawmakers opposed to Syria's influence in Lebanon for the first time since the 1975-1990 civil war.

"Final results show that we are ahead and show that the people have voted for change," Hariri said. "It was not possible that after the martyrdom of Rafik al-Hariri, the withdrawal of Syria, that nothing would change."

Pro-Syrian Christian former minister Suleiman Franjieh conceded he and his candidates headed for defeat in the mainly Sunni Muslim north, though they did well in Christian areas.

"What we feared is happening. I think the north has been divided along sectarian lines," Franjieh told LBC television.

"We have arrived at what we used to warn against."

Beirut newspapers, pointing to a new era after the elections, warned of a sharp rise in sectarianism.

"Voting along sectarian lines opens the door for a delicate period in which no one knows how to overcome the sectarian tension that characterized the elections across Lebanon," as-Safir daily said.

The anti-Syrian list squared off against an unlikely alliance of pro-Syrians and Damascus' erstwhile foe, former general Michel Aoun, a Maronite Christian.

Aoun's victory in the Christian heartland of Mount Lebanon in last week's round stunned the movement whose street protests following Hariri's assassination on February 14 forced Syria to bow to global pressure and pull out of Lebanon.

Aoun accused Hariri of buying votes and playing on sectarian differences to secure victory in northern Lebanon, ruling out any chance of teaming up with him in parliament.

"We will be in the opposition. We can't be with a majority that reached (parliament) through corruption," he said.

Hariri's bloc has now won 72 seats, an absolute majority, but short of the two-thirds the anti-Syrian front had predicted.

Official final results were expected later Monday, when European Union monitors observing the May 29-June 19 elections were also expected to issue a verdict.

Source: China Daily