The families of the nine Lebanese pilgrims held in Syria's Aazaz region held a sit-in on Thursday in front of the French Embassy in Beirut to pressure France to exert efforts to release the captives.

They said in a statement: “We will escalate our actions and stage sit-ins in front of the embassies of all countries that support the Syrian opposition.”

Lebanese Forces Leader Samir Geagea rejected any side-talk or attempt to form a cabinet of political figures, urging PM-designate Tammam Salam to discuss the thorny matter with all the factions concerned without exception, An Nahar daily quoted him as saying.

“To facilitate the mission of the PM-designate to form a new cabinet, we agreed primarily on the formation of a neutral technocrat government because its duty is to hold the elections, and to make Lebanon emerge from the dark tunnel,” stressed Geagea.

Nine out of 11 generators on the “Fatmagul Sultan” barge have stopped functioning, media reports said, pointing out that the power-generating vessel is only producing 15 percent of its capacity, which is 27 megawatts.

According to As Safir newspaper published on Thursday, the vessel that began its work earlier this month has several malfunctions caused by the long journey it took to arrive to Lebanon.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun stressed on Thursday that the members of his Change and Reform bloc will only vote on the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal but would participate in the elections under any other law that garners the majority of votes at parliament.

In an interview with al-Akhbar newspaper, Aoun said: “We want to vote on the Orthodox proposal … after it garnered the support of the majority at the joint parliamentary committees.”

Lebanon has high prospects of gas in its offshore Exclusive Economic Zone larger than the amount in Tamar and Leviathan fields off Israel's Mediterranean shores.

According to Neil Hodgson, an international expert at Spectrum company, there are high chances of detecting large quantities of gas offshore Lebanon.

Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov arrived in Beirut on Thursday on a four-day official visit to hold talks with senior Lebanese officials as part of his regional tour.

The Russian diplomat will hold talks with President Michel Suleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri, Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati and PM-designate Tammam Salam.

U.N. Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman has warned that the spillover of Syria's war continues to be felt in Lebanon as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the U.N. Susan Rice slammed Hizbullah for undermining the country's dissociation policy.

“The spillover of the conflict in Syria continues to be felt in Lebanon,” Feltman told the U.N. Security Council during an open debate on the Middle East Wednesday.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea received a phone call from Syrian Opposition leader George Sabra on Wednesday, during which both men discussed the involvement of Hizbullah fighters in Syria's conflict.

They also tackled how this issue might be reflected on the people of both countries.

The cabinet formation process has made a “serious breakthrough” and the line-up will be announced by mid-next week at the latest, sources close to Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam said on Wednesday.

“The cabinet comprises 24 ministers who do not belong to political parties and are not MP hopefuls,” the sources told MTV.

Spain backs the formation of a national unity government in Syria as a way out of the country's two-year conflict, its foreign minister said after talks in Beirut on Wednesday.

"The regime of (Syrian President) Bashar Assad has support, more or less, among the population, the Russians and the Iranians, and (can rely) on an army that functions," Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said at a meeting with his Lebanese counterpart Adnan Mansour in Beirut.