(Recasts with Rice, adds Lahoud in final paragraph)

By Nadim Ladki

BEIRUT, Nov 21 (Reuters) - The United States and Lebanon's main anti-Syrian Christian leader on Wednesday accused Damascus of blocking a deal on a new Lebanese president, just two days before the incumbent's term ends.

Samir Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces group, said the Damascus-backed opposition was threatening chaos if their preferred consensus candidate did not replace pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, who is due to leave office on Friday.

The United States, a strong supporter of Geagea and his allies in the anti-Syrian governing coalition, told Damascus to stop what it said was interference in the process.

"It really ought to be decided without foreign interference and certainly without any foreign intimidation. Those messages have been very clearly sent," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters.

Parliament has been called to meet on Friday to elect the new president. But with no consensus among Lebanon's political chiefs, the vote -- already postponed four times -- will not succeed, pitching the country towards even more instability.

Many fear Lebanon could be left with two rival administrations, one backed by the West and the other by Syria and Iran. The rival camps have accused each other of arming and training supporters.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned there was "a real possibility of a confrontation" if there was no deal.

Ban visited Lebanon last week to urge the politicians to agree, warning them that a country still rebuilding from its 1975-1990 civil war stood on "the brink of the abyss".

Ban's comments added to intense international pressure on the rivals to reach a deal on the presidency -- the latest stage in their year-long power struggle.

Geagea told Reuters that "Syria and its allies have shut the door on consensus despite all our efforts".

"The only actual remaining solution is for all deputies to go to Friday's session to elect a president," Geagea said.

"Let Syria and its allies agree on a certain candidate and we will agree on a candidate and go to parliament."

Syria has stated its support for French-led efforts to reach a deal. "Syria's candidate for the presidency is the one the Lebanese reach consensus upon," Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said.

CALL FOR COMPROMISE

Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, one of Syria's most vocal Lebanese critics, urged compromises to avert bloodshed. "My advice to everyone and to the Christians especially is to protect civil peace in Lebanon ... which requires everyone to make concessions," Jumblatt told As-Safir newspaper.

"The people won't be merciful to us and they won't forgive us over a single drop of blood that falls in the street. What is required of us is to get out of this dark tunnel quickly and any deal makes civil peace the winner," he said.

The opposition has said it will not go to parliament unless there is agreement on a single candidate, who must be a Maronite Christian according to Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system.

The ruling coalition holds only a slim majority and the opposition says the vote requires two-thirds of the MPs.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has been in Beirut since Sunday on his sixth trip since taking office in May. Rice said she had spoken to him on how to break the deadlock.

Geagea said the majority would wait for "a few hours or a few days" before electing a new head of a state on its own if there was no vote on Friday. The opposition have said such a move would plunge Lebanon into chaos.

"It is unacceptable and incomprehensible to leave the country without a president," Geagea said.

Lahoud hinted that he would act before leaving office if there was no deal on his successor. In a speech to mark Independence Day, he said he would take a step which would keep the nation's "head held high". He did not say what it was. (Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy in Beirut, Claudia Parsons at the United Nations and Sue Plemming in Washington; Writing by Tom Perry in Beirut; editing by Sami Aboudi)

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