As part of the preparations for the June 14 presidential election session, “secret contacts” have been held between Christian leaders and Democratic Gathering chief MP Taymour Jumblat to discuss the issue of supporting the candidate Jihad Azour, ad-Diyar newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Media reports have said that the Democratic Gathering might resort to blank ballots or might split its votes between Azour and Suleiman Franjieh so that outgoing Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat does not dismay his longtime ally and friend Speaker Nabih Berri.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told ex-president Michel Aoun in their meeting in Damascus on Tuesday that “he is not interfering in the presidential file” and that he will “remain neutral and won’t discuss this file with anyone,” sources close to the Free Patriotic Movement told al-Joumhouria newspaper.

Sources close to the March 8 camp also told the daily that Assad told Aoun that he will not interfere in the presidential file without voicing any other stance.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has threatened to bomb Hezbollah and Lebanon "into the stone age," if the Lebanese, Iran-backed group "makes a mistake" and "starts a war against Israel."

During a visit to the Israeli army’s northern command, he said: “I hear our enemies boasting about weapons they are developing. For any such development, we have an even better response -- by air, by sea and on land and through other means of attack and defense."

The choice of voting for Jihad Azour in the presidential elections is “certain and natural,” the Free Patriotic Movement said.

Voting for Azour is aimed at “stressing rejection of the election of the imposed candidate from whom no reform or change of the establishment controlling the country can be hoped,” the FPM’s political council said in a statement.

Former president and Free Patriotic Movement founder Michel Aoun held a meeting Tuesday in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The health of a son of Libya's late leader Moammar Gadhafi was deteriorating three days into a hunger strike to protest his detention in Lebanon without trial, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Hannibal Gadhafi was suffering from headaches, muscle pain and difficulties moving around, his lawyer Paul Romanos said. He started his hunger strike Saturday.

MP Hassan Fadlallah of Hezbollah on Tuesday said that Speaker Nabih Berri’s call for a presidential election session refutes the rival camp’s claims that “there won’t be a session because we don’t guarantee the success of our candidate.”

“We have a host of constitutional choices and we are discussing these choices with our allies and friends to take the appropriate stance in the coming session,” Fadlallah added.

Parliament will convene next week to elect a president, amid high tensions between supporters of Marada leader Suleiman Franjieh and former minister Jihad Azour.

The opposition and the Free Patriotic Movement said they have agreed on voting for Azour but media reports said Tuesday that at least six FPM MPs will not vote for Azour, even after FPM chief Jebran Bassil met with them and tried to convinced them of voting for the former minister of finance.

The Higher Judicial Council has appointed Judge Habib Rizkallah to look into the judicial standoff between State Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat and Beirut port blast investigator Judge Tarek Bitar.

Bitar had on February 6 postponed questioning of officials over the dispute with Oueidat.

Presidential candidate Jihad Azour has lamented “the false information that is being circulated about him through media outlets and social networking websites,” a media report said.

“I’m facing a broad disinformation campaign aimed at tarnishing my image and credibility, which is taking advantage of the restraints stipulated by my job” at the International Monetary Fund, Azour told those whom he recently met, according to Al-Arabiya TV.