Beirut, May. 22, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Lebanon's leading Catholic prelate has charged that Syrian influence remains the main obstacle to peace in that country.

“All the country’s bishops are in agreement that the Syrian occupation, which is the cause of conflict in Lebanon, must end," the Maronite Catholic Patriarch Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir said in a May 22 interview with Vatican Radio.

The Maronite leader spoke to Vatican Radio as violence flared in Lebanon, with car bombings in Beirut and heavy government shelling of a refuge camp near Tripoli that is the stronghold of a Syrian-based militia group.

Cardinal Sfeir, who has long been critical of Syrian influence in Lebanon, called for international leadership to help the country escape from foreign domination. "New initiatives are necessary" to break Syria's control over Lebanon, he said.