LEBANON’S Communists warned today that a technocratic stitch-up was no solution to the country’s deepening political crisis.

Newly appointed PM Hassan Diab said he planned to appoint a “government of experts and independents” because he himself was “an expert and an independent.” A Sunni, as the prime minister has to be under Lebanon’s existing sectarian constitution, he lacks support from Sunni parties in the parliament and has won office through backing from Shi’ite formations.

Protesters attempting to form roadblocks in Beirut in response to his appointment were stopped by the army .

Huge protests have dominated the capital for months as a cross-faith uprising has raised demands for an end to sectarian power-sharing and the resultant corruption.

“I ask [the protesters] to give us a chance to form an exceptional government,” he said.

But the Lebanese Communist Party said the Diab cure was worse than the disease.

“The so-called ‘reform paper’ agreed between the parties of the resigned government is just one paper illustrating US financial pressure on Lebanon, recommending the privatisation of remaining state institutions and making the overwhelming and crushed majority of Lebanese pay the price of the crisis.

“It is clear that authorities are still unconcerned with the demands of the citizens, so that Hassan Diab was appointed without any discussion even of his programme.

The party called for the continuation of the uprising, demanding a transitional government to adopt a new electoral law without sectarian restrictions, hold elections on that basis, recover looted public property and prosecute corrupt officials.