Lebanon's Salam, Consensus PM for Tough Times

Tammam Salam, who on Saturday became Lebanon's new prime minister at the head of a compromise government, is a moderate politician from a family with a long political history.

Salam is a son of Saeb Salam -- who himself held the job six times between 1952 and 1973 -- and a woman hailing from Damascus.

Known for his calm temperament and distinctive baldness, Salam, 68, was first elected a Beirut MP in 1996. He was re-elected in 2009.

He was first on the electoral list of late premier Rafik Hariri, and then on that of former PM Saad Hariri.

Conciliatory in his ways, Salam has been less outspoken and hawkish than other political opponents.

Two weeks after Najib Miqati resigned as premier, Salam won almost all MPs' votes for the post, amid hopes he would help ease the country's stark divisions.

In announcing his cabinet on Saturday, Salam called it a "government protecting the national interest".

"It is a unifying government and the best formula to allow Lebanon to confront challenges," he said.

Though he has condemned Syria's cross-border bombings of Lebanese areas that back the anti-Damascus revolt, Salam has never made fiery anti-Assad statements.

In 1992, and as post-civil war Lebanon was under Syria's domination, Salam refused to stand out of conviction that the country cannot function without the participation of all its sects, in solidarity with Christian parties who boycotted a parliamentary election.

He has criticized Hizbullah's arsenal, but salutes the "resistance against Israel."

And unlike dissident hawks who accuse Hizbullah of creating "a state within the state," Salam has never overtly called on the party to disarm.

His conciliatory nature is reminiscent of his father, who was himself the son of a politician, a prominent figure during the Ottoman era and the French mandate period at the start of the 20th century.

During Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, which pitted Muslim militias allied to the Palestinians against Christian factions who rejected their presence in Lebanon, Saeb Salam favored slogans such as "One Lebanon, not two" and "Neither victors nor vanquished".

In 1982, he opposed the election of president Bashir Gemayel. But after Gemayel was assassinated, Salam convinced the country's Muslims to vote for his brother, Phalange Party leader Amin.

Tammam Salam went to a French school in Beirut, and later graduated in economics and management in England.

He is married to Lama Baddreddine and has three children.