precondition

s and there'd be no ceiling on the demands that could be raised by delegates. The main opposition Shia bloc joined in at the last moment after a protracted debate, but it's demanding changes in the way the prime minister is appointed and the release of all those detained in the government's crackdown on protest.

The African Union says its members will not cooperate with the International Criminal Court in carrying out the arrest warrant against the Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi. At the end of a summit in Equatorial Guinea, the African leaders said that the warrant seriously

complicate

d their efforts to find a political solution.

The leader of the Lebanese militant Shia group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has rejected the criminal indictments of four of its senior members who are accused of assassinating the country's former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Mr Hariri and 22 others were killed by a massive bomb in 2005. From Beirut, Owen Bennett-Jones reports.

Hassan Nasrallah gave his reaction to the tribunal's arrest warrants in a televised address. He rejected

outright

the tribunal's findings, criticising various members of the organisation's staff as being biased, corrupt and linked to the CIA.

He complained that no serious attempt had been made to investigate whether Israel was behind the assassination. Leaks from the tribunal suggest it's

relying mainly on

mobile phone evidence to accuse the Hezbollah members. The Lebanese government now has 30 days to arrest the four men. But Hassan Nasrallah said they would not be detained, not even in 300 years.