BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) – Seeking a way out of political deadlock, the anti-Syrian opposition softened its tone Monday and urged Prime Minister-designate Omar Karami to form a new government to ensure parliamentary elections are held on time.

Opposition leader Walid Jumblatt shelved for now his demand that pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud step down immediately. But a waterborne demonstration Monday showed the opposition’s rank-and-file have not give up their demands for Lahoud to resign.

About 200 opposition supporters staged a protest in some 50 speedboats and yachts in the St. Georges Hotel marina, near the site of a massive explosion that killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 17 others on Feb. 14 and set off intense anti-Syrian protests in the country.

In boats festooned with colorful streamers, Lebanese flags and portraits of Hariri, the demonstrators hoisted a huge banner demanding “Lahoud’s resignation now.”

They chanted the opposition rallying cry – “Freedom, sovereignty, independence and truth” – a demand for Syria to withdraw all its troops from Lebanon and for an independent inquiry to uncover the perpetrators of the Hariri’s assassination.

Jumblatt, who leads the Druse community, indicated in interviews Sunday and Monday that the opposition now wants the pro-Syrian Karami to form a government to enable parliamentary elections to take place on time.

Karami has been trying to form a government of national unity, but Jumblatt and the opposition have rejected his overtures, insisting all Syrian troops leave Lebanon, pro-Syrian security chiefs are dismissed and an international inquiry into Hariri’s assassination is appointed.

Karami, who was forced out of office by street demonstrations last month, still commands a majority in the Lebanese parliament. However, the opposition believes it will shift the political balance in the staggered elections, which are due to begin in April and go through May.

Jumblatt told supporters at his mountain residence south of Beirut on Sunday that the opposition’s priority is elections, and in order for a vote to take place, there has to be a government.

“Later, after we win the elections, there will be a new government. I will then advise President Lahoud to step down, and then there will be a new regime, a new president and a new government,” he said.

The strategy means Jumblatt has dropped his demand for the immediate departure of Lahoud, who has rebuffed such calls. Jumblatt confirmed this to reporters in Cairo, where he met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday.

Jumblatt also drew attention to the challenges the opposition would face if it wins power.

“Our neighbors have occupied and polluted every corner of the public sector – education, health care, economic institutions,” Jumblatt said in an interview published in Monday’s edition of the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

“Cleaning up Lebanon of Syrian pollution is going to be more difficult than seeing the Damascus army outside our borders,” he added.

Syria came under massive international and domestic pressure to withdraw its 14,000 troops in Lebanon after Hariri’s assassination. Last week, it completed the withdrawal of 4,000 troops to Syria, with the remaining 10,000 being redeployed to Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley.

Early next month, Lebanese and Syrian generals are due to set a date for the full withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. The United Nations and the United States have demanded a full withdrawal before elections.

Although Syria and its Lebanese allies in government denied any role in Hariri’s assassination, the killing highlighted Syria’s long domination of Lebanon. The Syrian troops, which first entered the country during the 1975-90 civil war, made Damascus the power broker of Lebanese politics.