Mr. Mikati who has widespread business dealings in Syria maintains a close relationship with Syrian President Bashar Assad, is a telecoms tycoon and founder of Mikati Communications Group, which includes Investcom, a leading Middle Eastern mobile phone company that formerly ran Lebanons now-defunct Cellis network. The company has interests in Yemen, Syria and Cyprus.

Investcom Holding that was founded in 1982 owns a group of companies with telecoms operations in Africa, Europe and the Middle East, including a stake in one of Syrias two mobile telephone operators.

The company has more than 3.3 million mobile phone customers in sub-Saharan Africa and Arab countries such as Syria and Yemen. It is currently working on plans to set up a mobile phone network in parts of Sudan and in Afghanistan, where it won a license in 2005 and the western African nation of Guinea.

Investcoms operations are in countries where mobile phone use is very low, but where, with gradually improving prosperity, this can be expected to grow fast. In many cases, there is no fixed-line telecoms network to compete against, and the main issue is boosting familiarity with phone handsets.

Investcom listed on the Dubai and London stock exchanges in September 2005. Mikati and his brother shared a US$370m cash windfall after they floated their mobile telecoms in London, which is valued at US$3.3bn. The issue of shares was up to 10 times subscribed.

Mikati served as minister of public works and transport for six years during the premiership of Rafik Hariri who was assassinated on February 14, 2005. The 49-year-old Sunni Muslim who grew up in the northern port city of Tripoli and studied business administration at the American University of Beirut and earned a masters degree in business from Harvard in 1989.

He was appointed prime minister-designate in 2005 as Lebanon prepared itself for free elections for the first time in the absence of Syrian troops on its soil after 30 years. Mikati won the nomination of the countrys 128-member parliament and was first elected to parliament in 2000. He is married with three children.