An Nahar daily on Monday quoted sources as saying that huge differences among the majority and the opposition threaten to undermine efforts to reach an understanding at the national dialogue that will be launched at Baabda Palace on Tuesday.

The sources doubted the 14 leaders who will attend the talks will be able to quickly agree on the country's defense strategy given "the wide gap between the majority's and the opposition's stances from the issue."

Also, Suleiman's visit to Washington and the United Nations headquarters in New York later this month will be a setback as there will be no weekly scheduled talks.

By Sunday night, all invitations were sent by the presidential palace to the conferees to attend the first session at 11:00 am Tuesday after Armenians finally agreed on MP Hagop Pakradounian as their representative.

Other than having a rectangular and not roundtable setting for the participants of the 14 political groups, two major points distinguish Tuesday's dialogue from previous talks - First, the conference will be sponsored by President Michel Suleiman and second, the dialogue will deal directly with the controversial issue of Hizbullah's arms.