BEIRUT - Visiting Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Wednesday he hoped 2009 would see a comprehensive Middle East peace settlement given changes in the US and Israeli administrations and elections in the region.

"I think 2009 is going to be a very important year," Miliband told reporters after meeting with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman.

"It is the year of change globally because there is a new American president, there will be a new Israeli government, there will be elections in Lebanon and .... in Iran as well."

He added, "We all know that there will be no peace and stability in the world if there is not peace and stability in the Middle East. There will not be peace and stability in the Middle East unless there is peace and stability in Lebanon."

Miliband said he had discussed with Sleiman legislative elections planned in Lebanon next spring and the importance of stability in the country.

"The world will be watching to see all parties respect the democratic process and ensure that politics and not violence are the basis for the decisions about Lebanon's future," he said.

"So often in history Lebanon has been the victim of other people's conflicts and we will know that there is a true prospect of lasting peace in the Middle East when Lebanon is no longer the victim of other people's conflicts," he added.

The foreign secretary also held talks with Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and was to meet with students at the American University of Beirut before leaving the country later in the day.

He arrived in Beirut on Tuesday following a stop in Damascus where he held talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the first British politician to do so since 2001.

Syria has faced diplomatic isolation since the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri in a massive car bomb. It denies any role in the killing.

It has also been shunned by the West because of its ties with Iran, the Palestinian group Hamas and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, considered a terrorist organisation by the US and Britain.

Earlier in his tour of the region, Miliband also travelled to Israel and the West Bank, holding meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas.

He last visited Beirut in June following the election of Sleiman and the formation of a national unity government which put an end to an 18-month crippling political crisis that had brought the country close to civil war. -AFP