BEIRUT: Saad Hariri was reappointed Lebanon's prime minister on Wednesday after he stepped down from the post last week over rising tension with his opponents, a presidential statement said.

Hariri was called on by President Michel Sleiman to form a government after 73 out of a possible 128 lawmakers nominated him to the post.

"Following consultations with the speaker of parliament and MPs ... the president has called on Saad Hariri to form a government," the statement said.

Hariri abandoned a first bid to form a national unity government last week after his political opponents led by the militant group Hezbollah rejected his proposed government line-up.

Hariri, 39, the son of slain ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, is head of the US- and Saudi-backed parliamentary majority which defeated a rival alliance backed by Syria and Iran in a June election.

Parliament speaker Nabih Berri and his allies in the opposition on Wednesday abstained from naming anyone for the premiership, which is reserved for a Sunni Muslim under Lebanon's complex sectarian political system.

Berri's parliamentary bloc had voted in favor of Hariri's first appointment following the June vote.

Hariri has accused his political rivals of blocking efforts to unlock a continuing political stalemate over the new cabinet.

Hezbollah and its allies however insist that the line-up proposed by Hariri is not acceptable.

The mounting tension has sparked fears of a new crisis in Lebanon which came close to civil war last year following a drawn-out political stalemate.