BEIRUT, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Lebanon's opposition-backed labour union confederation on Thursday took a pause in its daily demonstrations against the government's economic reform programme to decide its next move. "We just want to take a rest today," union chief Ghassan Ghosn told Reuters. "Today we have a meeting ... we will announce after the meeting what the next steps are, if we decide to do something on Friday then we'll announce it on Thursday." At the behest of the union, hundreds of Lebanese protesters had gathered outside government buildings over the past two days as part of a Hezbollah-led campaign to topple Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government and block his economic reforms. The thinly attended protests, a far cry from the vast gatherings organised by Iranian-and-Syrian-backed Hezbollah and its allies in December, were backed by the opposition as part of a 42-day-old campaign to topple Siniora's government. The labour union, which rejected the tax hikes and privatisation plans proposed in the reform programme, had originally pledged to organise daily protests near government buildings and facilities until Siniora gives way. Protesters have camped outside Siniora's offices in central Beirut since Dec. 1 to try to force him to cede veto power to the opposition in a unity government or call early elections. Siniora, has resisted those demands, and has announced the economic reform package to be presented at an international donors conference in Paris this month. The prime minister, whose backers include the United States, France and Saudi Arabia, will begin a tour of mainly Gulf Arab states on Sunday to discuss Arab participation in the conference, a government source said. He will also visit Egypt. The Beirut government hopes the Jan. 25 conference, which U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to attend, will bring billions of dollars of aid to an economy reeling from Hezbollah's July-August war with Israel. Ghosn said the next moves could include simultaneous sit-ins at two different locations or it could be a strike at a key institution and all its related facilities. He hinted there may be a protest on Friday or Sunday. Asked if he thought the sparsely attended protests would get the government's attention, Ghosn said: "First of all we're not seeking a crowd, the Lebanese government had a big crowd, and it wasn't listening or seeing. The movement is note related to numbers but to what it is directed to ... bit by bit we will get an impact."
