Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel announced on Monday the extension of the deadline for submitting candidacies to the parliamentary elections to May 27, after President Michel Suleiman had signed in April a draft law to suspend the nominations.

Charbel had stated in an interview to As Safir newspaper published on Monday that if the rival MPs did not reach consensus over an electoral law, "they wouldn't have any other choice but to resort to the 1960 law."

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stressed on Monday the need to form a new government in Lebanon that “can help restore the role of constitutional institutions in Lebanon.”

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa website: “No party should overpower the other in a new cabinet.”

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri criticized on Monday President Michel Suleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri, caretaker Premier Najib Miqati, and the Lebanese army command's silence over Hizbullah fighting in Syria alongside the country's regime forces, while urging officials to reach an agreement over a parliamentary electoral law.

He wondered in a statement: “Where is the national, constitutional, and moral responsibility towards the crime being committed by a major Lebanese faction through meddling in the internal Syrian war?”

President Michel Suleiman denied on Monday receiving a warning from Israel that it would destroy Lebanon in case of a Hizbullah attack on the Jewish state.

Suleiman's press office said that the president hasn't received such a warning “although Israeli threats and violations of Lebanese airspace never stop.”

March 14 independent MP Butros Harb slammed on Monday attempts to paralyze constitutional institutions, urging parliamentary blocs to swiftly agree on a new electoral law.

“If circumstances obliged us to extend the tenure of the parliament then it must be for few months,” Harb said after talks with President Michel Suleiman at the Baabda Palace.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati condemned on Monday the renewal of clashes in the northern city of Tripoli, calling on all sides to cooperate with security forces to halt the unrest.

He urged “the residents against being dragged towards the strife some sides are seeking to ignite in Tripoli.”

At least 28 Hizbullah fighters were killed in battles in the Syrian border town of al-Qusayr, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday.

"Twenty-eight members of Hizbullah's elite forces were killed in the clashes that have been ongoing since yesterday in the town of Qusayr," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence France Presse.

Two soldiers were killed in the neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh in Tripoli on Monday as the army sought to implement a security plan to contain the clashes in the northern city, a statement released by the Army Command announced.

"Ali Shhade and Omar al-Hajj Omar were killed and 6 others were wounded after they came under gunfire from armed groups in Tripoli,” the statement said, explaining that this took place when the army was implementing security measures to restore stability in northern areas witnessing conflicts.

Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel has rejected to be held responsible for a parliamentary vacuum, saying he would exert all efforts to hold the elections on time if no agreement was reached on a new vote law.

In remarks to As Safir daily published Monday, Charbel said: “I won't be at any moment responsible for the vacuum in the legislative branch.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun stressed that his party is ready to run in the 2013 parliamentary elections, assuring that he rejects any boycott, the As Safir daily quoted him on Monday.

“The Free Patriotic Movement is ready to wage the elections and is not afraid of a confrontation,” the Change and Reform bloc chief said, adding “We reject to boycott the elections.”