Lebanese political leaders have agreed on the make-up of a national unity government after six weeks of talks.
The Western-backed parliamentary majority is set to control slightly more than half of the cabinet.
Former opposition groups supported by Syria and Iran will meanwhile have enough seats to veto major German FM arrives in Lebanon for talks ...
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The recently elected President, Michel Suleiman, who is generally seen as a neutral figure, will appoint the key ministers of defence and the interior.
An agreement to form a national unity government was reached in May following and a long period of political paralysis and the worst sectarian violence in Lebanon since the end of the civil war in 1990.
Qatar deal
The presidential decree announcing the formation of the new government finally came after a meeting between the Prime Minister-designate, Fouad Siniora, and Mr Suleiman.
Under the deal mediated by Qatar in May, the opposition was granted 11 of the cabinet's 30 seats - enough to veto major decisions.
The negotiations on the new government have been tortuous, often angry, says the BBC's Crispin Thorold in Beirut, and there has been considerable international pressure on the politicians involved.
They will now have to make even more difficult decisions, our correspondent says.
Perhaps most sensitive will be the status of Hezbollah's weapons.
The Shia movement says that it should keep its guns to protect Lebanon from Israel. Others believe its military wing should, over time, be incorporated into the national army.
(BBC)
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