Lebanon's pro-Syrian Prime Minister-designate Omar Karami confirmed yesterday he would abandon his attempt to forge a national unity government, but stopped short of formally tendering his resignation. The government crisis set off by the February 14 assassination of Karami's predecessor Rafik Hariri has dimmed prospects that elections can be completed on schedule by the end of May. The anti-Syrian opposition had always rejected the idea of a unity government. Karami's doomed effort to form one, and his slow-motion resignation, have fuelled opposition suspicions that the authorities are manoeuvring to postpone the polls. "Since the beginning, the government was trying to delay the elections," Christian former President Ameen Gemayel said. "We are pushing to have the elections on schedule." Syria's allies in Lebanon, led by the Shiite Hezbollah group, staged a noisy but peaceful rally outside the US embassy north of Beirut, where several thousand protesters waved Lebanese flags and shouted anti-American slogans. Karami met President Emile Lahoud to tell him he planned to step down. The Sunni premier said afterwards he would submit his resignation only after meeting his loyalist bloc. "The goal is not just forming a government, but salvation, and we don't see salvation without a unity government," he said. Pro-Syrian political sources said the loyalists would meet tomorrow evening and even then might ask Karami to stay on.