Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Friday reiterated his support for his presidential nominee MP Henri Helou as Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea announced that there is “nothing new” in the issue of the stalled presidential vote.

“Talks were frank and positive ... and there were points of agreement and contention, but in the end we only have the choice of dialogue,” Jumblat said following talks with Geagea in Maarab.

The names of several presidential candidates have been discussed as potential figures to fill the ongoing vacuum at the Baabda Palace, local newspapers reported on Tuesday.

An Nahar newspaper reported that head of the Mustaqbal Movement MP Saad Hariri discussed last week with French President Francois Hollande in Paris the names of four candidates from the March 14 alliance and three centrists.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri reiterated on Monday that he was trying hard to push for the election of a new president in Lebanon.

In an interview with the French daily Le Figaro, Hariri said: “Lebanon's coexistence … is menaced by the paralysis of institutions amid a presidential vacuum.”

Speaker Nabih Berri was on Sunday optimistic that the rival March 8 and 14 alliances would attend a legislative session to approve pending issues.

In remarks to An Nahar daily, Berri said: “There is a positive atmosphere.”

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi proposed on Thursday that any future outgoing president should continue to carry out his tasks until the political arch-foes agree on his successor in order to avoid vacancy at the country's most important Christian post.

“We have always said that the parliament must convene and elect a new head of state,” al-Rahi said from Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport ahead of his departure to the Vatican to discuss with Pope Francis and other senior officials the conditions of Iraqi Christians.

Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat renewed his call on rival Lebanese parties to unite to confront the danger of terrorists and salvage Lebanon.

Jumblat said that he agreed with Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah during their meeting last month that the Islamic State's threat to the region puts Lebanon in danger.

Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun underwent a “small surgery” after fracturing his arm, his press office announced on Sunday.

“He is doing fine,” it said in a terse statement without giving further details.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi has suggested to bring together Lebanon's top Christian political leaders in Rome but his proposal was rejected, An Nahar newspaper reported on Thursday.

Al-Rahi wanted to put the officials under “moral pressure to convince them to agree on a candidate for the presidency and agree on holding the elections,” the daily said.

Speaker Nabih Berri has said that his rejection to extend parliament's term should be used as a “pressure card” to speed up the election of a new president.

Local dailies on Wednesday quoted Berri as saying that the vacuum at Baabda Palace would remain if the legislature's term was extended for the second time.

Speaker Nabih Berri rejected any negotiation with the jihadists who took more than 35 soldiers and policemen captive in the northeastern town of Arsal last week.

In remarks to As Safir newspaper published on Monday, Berri said: “Had Prime Minister Tammam Salam asked for my advice, I would have told him to resort to Qatar and Turkey to resolve this issue.”