Lebanon's Defence Minister Samir Moqbel said he would extend the term of army chief General Jean Kahwaji on Thursday, avoiding a vacuum at the head of the military whose leadership has been a subject of political dispute.
 
 
The decision to extend Kahwaji's term heading the army, seen as a rare neutral institution in a country beset by sectarian divisions, was supposed to have been made by the cabinet, but it failed to convene because of Lebanon's political crisis.