Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun on Friday branded Prime Minister Fouad Saniora a "sectarian" and accused him of ruining the state.

"Mr Saniora is a sectarian man and he is ruining the state," Aoun told a news conference from his residence in Rabiyeh.

"Let him (Saniora) submit to financial audit if he wants to challenge me," he added.

He said Saniora was using the Higher Relief Council to "relieve" parliamentary candidates backed by the premier.

"The Higher Relief Council pays money to asphalt roads in Kesrouan and does not compensate to farmers whose crops were damaged during the (2006) war," Aoun said.

He said the Hariri Foundation, not the Higher Relief Council, pays compensation to Bekaa farmers.

Aoun also lashed out at Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir over recent remarks he made on reconciliation efforts.

"Patriarch Sfeir had announced from Baabda that his previous reconciliation efforts had been rejected," Aoun explained.

"We did not run away; and we had accepted the Honor Agreement and Bkirki's fundamentals unconditionally," Aoun went on.

He was referring to comments made by Sfeir following his surprise visit to the Presidential Palace on Tuesday in which the patriarch announced that he had undertaken several initiatives in the past "but when we reached a vital point everybody disavowed."

He said reconciliation with the Lebanese Forces took place when Aoun visited LF leader Samir Geagea at his prison.

"We (LF and FPM) either reach an understanding or compete through democratic means," he said.

On the adoption of a new elections law, Aoun said he hoped that "no new law regarding municipalities would be adopted in 2013."

"How do they say that military personnel are a germ and are not allowed to vote?," he complained.

Regarding efforts to reconcile Christians, Aoun said the FPM "has no problems with anybody."

"I don't mind reconciling with MP Nayla Moawad," Aoun acknowledged. "But in return I want an apology from her over accusations that I was an accomplice in the assassination of President Rene Moawad.

"If she apologizes, that's good. And if she did not apologize, she will be forgiven," he added.

Aoun defended Syria's troop buildup along its border with Lebanon.

"Their talk against Syria is part of bickering over elections," Aoun said in reference to the majority March 14 coalition.

"Syria has the right to take measures along its border and Lebanon has to do the same," Aoun said, adding that he would like to draw the Prosecution's attention on an article about a deal to smuggle Syrian nationals belonging to Fatah al-Islam during the 2007 fighting between the extremist group and the Lebanese army at the northern refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared.

"This article which was published by Ali Hamadeh in An Nahar hurts the army, the President and the people," Aoun claimed.