The Council of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops called on Saturday for the formation of a new government capable of overseeing the upcoming 2013 parliamentary elections.

“Officials should reach consensus over a new electoral law and form a new cabinet that should seek reconciliation (among the Lebanese foes) and oversee the polls,” the council said in its final statement after a three-day closed-door meeting in Bkirki.

Several inmates in Roumieh prison rioted to protest the treatment they are undergoing at the facility by some security guards, state-run National News Agency reported on Saturday.

According to the news agency, prisoners broke doors on Friday night in protest against their poor living conditions, prompting security guards to intervene to control the situation.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel and Tripoli lawmakers said Saturday that the Lebanese government should take “decisive measures” to resolve the situation in the northern city as sniper activity and clashes renewed in the city breaching its fragile peace.

During a press conference that Charbel held before heading a security meeting, he hoped the meeting would be the start to the implementation of measures that would limit Tripoli's problems and lead to talks between the warring parties after days of gunbattles between the residents of two neighborhoods left scores of casualties.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour announced on Saturday that Syria will hand over the bodies of three Lebanese killed in the Tall Kalakh ambush on Sunday.

“The three bodies belong to Khodr Mustafa Alameddine, Malek Ziad al-Hajj Dib and Abdul Hamid Ali Agha,” revealed a statement issued by Mansour's office.

Mufti of Tripoli and the North Sheikh Malek al-Shaar denied on Saturday that he was after a seat in Dar al-Fatwa but stressed willingness to serve Sunnis if there was consensus on him.

In remarks to An Nahar daily, al-Shaar, who traveled to Paris following information that he could be the target of an assassination plot, said that he hasn't announced his candidacy to any post in the Dar al-Fatwa elections.

A Lebanese Shiite pilgrim, who is among nine men held by rebels in Syria since May, urged in a new videotape their families to exercise self-restraint and reiterated the call for al-Mustaqbal MP Oqab Saqr to negotiate their release.

In the tape released by Syrian rebels in the town of Aazaz after midnight Friday, Ali Zgheib said that he along with the other “eight Lebanese are doing good.”

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah stressed the necessity to cut the road short on strife before it aggravates among the Muslim community and assured that the cabinet will not collapse, As Safir daily reported on Saturday.

“Cutting the road short on strife among Muslims is an utmost priority and obligation,” the newspaper quoted Nasrallah as telling hundreds of academic students on Friday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat warned both the parliamentary majority and the opposition that they will not be able to make political gains and change the balance imposed in parliament.

“If you think that the elections will allow any team to twist the arm of the other party, then you are mistaken,” Jumblat, who is the head of the National Struggle Front bloc, told As Safir newspaper published Saturday.

President Michel Suleiman told the Mufti of Tripoli and the north Sheikh Malek al-Shaar on Friday that he is following up on the alleged threats the clergyman is receiving and that made him decide to extend his stay in Europe.

"I have been contacted by several officials advising me not to return to Lebanon,” al-Shaar told the Central News Agency, revealing that among the callers was Interior Minister Marwan Charbel.

The Syndicate Coordination Committee announced on Friday that it will be holding a rally on Monday in front of the presidential palace in Baabda, reported the National News Agency.

The demonstration will held at the same time as a cabinet session, which is set to tackle the new wages scale and the sources of its funding.