Justice Minister Shaqib Qortbawi revealed on Wednesday that he is at the stage of processing the names of the judges that are qualified to succeed General Prosecutor Saeed Mirza.

“I hope that we will not witness any dispute over the names,” Qortbawi told al-Joumhouria newspaper.

President Michel Suleiman on Wednesday held talks with the leaders of Qatar and the UAE as part of his attempts to persuade several Gulf countries to reconsider their travel warnings to Lebanon.

In Doha, Suleiman briefed Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani on his recent call for resuming all-party talks, in line with the 2008 Doha Agreement, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.

President Michel Suleiman was on Wednesday still waiting for the March 14 opposition’s stance on his invitation for the national dialogue, five days before Lebanon’s top officials meet at Baabda palace to resolve the country’s lingering problems.

In remarks to As Safir daily, Suleiman said he hasn’t yet received a final answer from the opposition on its participation in the all-party talks. “But I believe it is not in the interest of any side not to participate in the dialogue or to obstruct it.”

Contacts are ongoing with the different factions in Tripoli to maintain calm in the northern city and to halt any security violations by any side, al-Liwaa newspaper reported.

According to the daily, officials are continuing their efforts to preserve stability in Tripoli, urging Arab Democratic Party official Rifaat Eid, who leads the mainly Alawite neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen, and several leaders of the rival neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh, not to slip over into new clashes.

Lebanon was able to restore 530 square kilometers of a maritime zone that it considers it to be within its Exclusive Economic Zone, As Safir newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Lebanon and Israel are bickering over a zone that consists of about 854 square kilometers and suspected energy reserves there could generate billions of dollars.

The cabinet will approve a draft-law to legalize the controversial extra-budgetary spending during its session on Thursday, President Michel Suleiman announced.

In remarks to As Safir daily on Wednesday, Suleiman said the government will resolve the dispute on the spending through legal ways and will not resort to a political settlement.

President Michel Suleiman stressed Tuesday the necessity of resorting to dialogue, as the only way “to agree on the integrity of national security, the thing that would remove the weapons of civil strife”.

In a speech marking the World Environment Day, Suleiman said that “economic progress is a main condition to achieve development, modernization and state authority.”

The wives and daughters of Lebanese Shiite pilgrims kidnapped in northern Syria identified two of the kidnappers on Tuesday after seeing them in a report about the Free Syrian Army on television.

LBCI reported that several women, part of a group of pilgrims kidnapped in Syria and released without their male relatives, contacted it after seeing their kidnappers’ faces on a Monday broadcast.

The lead legal representative and the two co-legal representatives designated by the Registrar of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to represent the victims of the February 14, 2005 attack have been sworn in, the STL announced in a statement issued on Tuesday.

The three legal representatives will represent the 58 people who were granted the right to participate as victims in the proceedings by the Pre-Trial judge.

Exchange of gunfire renewed on Tuesday between the rival Tripoli districts of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen, as the army threatened an “unprecedented response” against anyone who violates the fragile ceasefire.

Army troops fired back at the sources of gunfire, as state-run National News Agency said no gunmen were visible on Bab al-Tabbaneh’s streets.