Aoun, Set to Talk, Calls for End to War : Lebanon: He makes a conciliatory move to Muslim leaders and a Christian foe. He drops opposition to accord.

Maj. Gen. Michel Aoun appealed Friday for an end to Lebanon’s 15-year-old civil war, making a conciliatory move to Muslim leaders and a Christian warlord he has tried to crush in more than a month of battles.

Aoun also dropped his outright opposition to the peace accord and power-sharing agreement worked out by Lebanon’s Parliament in October.

Police said a week-old cease-fire between Aoun’s 19,000 troops and the 6,000-member Lebanese Forces militia of Samir Geagea was holding despite minor exchanges of sniper fire.

At least 750 people have been killed and 2,089 wounded during the inconclusive showdown for control of the 310-square-mile Christian enclave.

In another development, police said rival Shiite Muslim militias loyal to Syria and Iran clashed in South Beirut and southern Lebanon, but there were no reports of casualties.

The Shiite clashes came two days after a Beirut firefight between the two groups that left two people dead and three wounded.

The two factions have been fighting sporadically for more than two years for dominance among Shiites, the nation’s largest sect.

The war between the two Shiite militias has left 1,030 people dead and 3,046 wounded.

Aoun, in an unusually conciliatory statement to the newspaper An Nahar, said there will be no more clashes among Christians or between Christians and Muslims.

Aoun told the newspaper he wants “dialogue with everyone” to find a settlement. He stressed that there will be peace in the Christian enclave as well as along the areas separating Christian territory from the Muslim sectors.

The general also dropped his rejection of an Arab League peace plan brokered last year in the Saudi Arabian city of Taif.

“Abrogating the Taif accord is not necessary to launch a dialogue,” Aoun said.

He did call, however, for unspecified amendments to the plan.

Aoun originally rejected the accord because it did not include a timetable for the withdrawal of Syria’s 40,000 troops.

Aoun described the inconclusive intra-Christian showdown as “self-destructive” and called on Geagea to declare his “readiness for dialogue so we can meet.”

“Once two people manage to meet, they can invite others,” Aoun said.