Caretaker Health Minister Mohammed Jawad Khalife vowed on Sunday to investigate the alleged import of tainted cooking oil to Lebanon.

In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio station, Khalife said he would contact the Consumer Protection Authority on Monday to probe the issue and take the appropriate measures.

A March 14 source criticized Hizbullah leader Sayyed Nasrallah, telling An Nahar daily that the party chief spoke as if he was behind all freedoms in Lebanon. “He abolished the constitution and the state.”

In remarks published Sunday, the source mocked the Hizbullah chief, saying Nasrallah believes that “all Lebanese should thank him for allowing them to express their opinions.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun continued over the weekend to hold onto his demands for 12 ministries, including the interior ministry portfolio, in a 30-member cabinet, Premier-designate Najib Miqati’s circles told An Nahar daily in remarks published Sunday.

Aoun’s demands have further delayed the formation of the government, the circles said.

Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday stressed that "all this uproar" in Lebanon over his party's arsenal of weapons "will not affect the performance of the Resistance which will carry on with training and arming" its fighters.

"We have to deal calmly with everything being said, as the Resistance's arsenal of weapons is fine and it will always be pointed at the (Israeli) enemy, but let no one try to harass us," Nasrallah added.

President Michel Suleiman condemned on Saturday the attack on the Lebanese Embassy in Libya and the burning of the Lebanese flag.

He said: "It is a blatant attack on Lebanon's sovereignty."

A leaked U.S. Embassy cable published exclusively in Al-Akhbar Saturday revealed that Defense Minister Elias Murr believed that the Lebanese army would be able to swiftly deploy its troops in southern Lebanon.

The WikiLeaks cable, dated August 8, 2006, said that Murr informed then U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffery Feltman that 15,000 soldiers would be able to deploy in the South within 12 hours if they are ordered to do so.

Christian officials in the March 14 camp feared during the July 2006 war that the conflict would empower Hizbullah more than ever before, revealed a leaked U.S. Embassy cable published exclusively in Al-Akhbar on Saturday.

The WikiLeaks cable, dated August 5, 2006, reported on a meeting between then U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman, then assistant to the U.S. Secretary of State David Welsh, Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel, his slain son former minister Pierre, National Liberal party leader Dory Chamoun, National bloc leader Carlos Edde, March 14 general secretariat coordinator Fares Soaid, MPs Georges Adwan, Nayla Mouwad, Nassib Lahoud, and minister Butros Harb.

Newly elected Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stated that visiting Syria is not “taboo”, adding that he would relay Christian insecurities to officials in Lebanon and the Arab country.

He told the daily An Nahar in remarks published on Saturday: “It is the duty of every patriarch to visit the parishes every five years and I will do that immediately.”

Damascus’s visitors reported that high-ranking Syrian officials are questioning the delay in the formation of the Lebanese government “seeing as there are no reasons that should cause a delay,” reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat Saturday.

“The officials stressed that the Syrian leadership is not concerned with the details of the government and it does not intervene in the formation, but it urges all its allies to present mutual concessions to facilitate the formation,” they told the daily.

The political consultations over the government formation have entered a “truce” after Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun’s departure for Dubai on Friday, said a source monitoring the government formation process.

The consultations will resume as soon as Aoun returns from his trip, revealing that the meeting between Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati, Hizbullah official al-Hajj Hussein al-Khalil, Speaker Nabih Berri’s advisor MP Ali Hasan Khalil, and caretaker minister Jebran Bassil on Thursday led to an agreement over methods to end the deadlock over the government formation.