According to reliable esctoday.com sources, Lebanon will appear at the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which will release the official list of participants later today, could not yet comment on this 'rumour'.

Our source explained that the past week, a lot of negotiations have taken place to keep Lebanon in. Initially, broadcaster TéléLiban confirmed to esctoday.com that they would withdraw, but apparently, EBU efforts brought them on a different thoughts. We also learned that negotiations with TéléLiban were the reason to postpone the confirmation deadline with two days.

Lebanon will be represented by Aline Lahoud, which was already revealed early November.

The official list of participants will be revealed later today and based on our sources, we expect the following 40 countries to participate in 2005:

Eurovision Song Contest 2005 Qualifier round (19th May, 2005) | 26
Andorra
Austria
Belarus
Belgium
Bulgaria (NEW!)
Croatia
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
FYR Macedonia
Hungary (returns, last participation in 1998)
Ireland
Iceland
Israel
Latvia
Lebanon (NEW!)
Lithuania
Moldova (NEW!)
Monaco
The Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovenia
Swizerland

Eurovision Song Contest 2005 Final (21st May, 2005) | 14
Albania
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Cyprus
France (BIG4)
Germany (BIG4)
Greece
Malta
Russia
Serbia & Montenegro
Spain (BIG4)
Sweden
Turkey
Ukraine (winner 2004)
United Kingdom (BIG4)

We will update you with the latest news as soon as information reaches us.