Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun said Saturday that the March 8 alliance is not ready to give up power to the March 14 coalition that is rejecting to sit at the same table with the ruling majority.

“We are not ready to give up power to people who claim they won't sit at a single table with us,” Aoun said in an interview with al-Nour radio station. “We have made many compromises to sit with them at the table.”

President Michel Suleiman discussed with Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour on Saturday preparations underway at Lebanese missions abroad to allow expats to cast their ballots next year.

Parliament hasn't yet approved an electoral law after the cabinet referred to it a bill that divides Lebanon into 13 electoral districts based on proportional representation.

The U.N. Special envoy for the implementation of U.N. Security Council resolution 1559 said the world should give “priority to protecting Lebanon from harm at this difficult time.”

“Lebanon should not become a battleground for actors seeking to advance their own interests at the country’s expense or to destabilize the region,” Terje Roed-Larsen told the Security Council on Friday during a briefing on U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon's 16th semi-annual report on the implementation of 1559.

State Prosecutor Judge Hatem Madi stressed that he did not receive any file related to forging certificates of laboratory tests and illegal import of medications, An Nahar daily reported on Saturday.

“The judiciary has not received any file on forging certificates of more than one hundred medications,” Madi told the daily, pointing out “the last file received by the judiciary on a similar issue was in October and that was different from the one spoken about today.”

The Lebanese government is holding large-scale consultations with several countries to help Lebanon face the expected rise in the number of Syrian refugees who are escaping fierce fighting between rebels and government forces, An Nahar daily said Saturday.

The newspaper reported expectations the number of refugees in Lebanon to double after severe fighting in the south of Damascus, where rebel fighters clashed with pro-regime Palestinian forces in Hajar al-Aswad district and in the nearby Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk.

The nine Lebanese Shiite pilgrims abducted in Syria have telephoned their families, urging them to demonstrate outside the Iranian and Syrian embassies in Beirut, media reports said on Friday.

“I talked to (abductee) Ali Zgheib and everyone (of the abductees) spoke with his family and they said they're in good health,” Awad Ibrahim -- who was freed in September after being kidnapped with the group in May -- told LBCI television.

A Hizbullah delegation held talks on Friday with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on the latest local developments, particularly a new government and parliamentary electoral law.

It said after the talks at Bkirki: “Proposals to form a neutral government are not realistic and we oppose the obstruction of state institutions.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea stated on Friday that the current conflict in the region does not center around Sunnis and Shiites, but Syria and the conflict over establishing a democratic regime instead of the current one.

He said during a seminar in Maarab on the Apostolic Exhortation: “Those who support the Exhortation cannot back Syrian President Bashar Assad and the killers in the (Lebanese) government.”

The latest investigations into the assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau chief Wissam al-Hasan have revealed that the driver of the booby-trapped car used in the attack had “covered his head with a hat” in order to prevent security cameras installed in the area from taking footage of his face, a media report said on Friday, as State Prosecutor Hatem Madi said the possibilities "have been narrowed down.”

“One of the culprits of the Ashrafiyeh blast that killed martyr Major General Wissam al-Hasan parked the booby-trapped car – a Toyota RAV4 carrying no other passengers – on Ibrahim al-Monzer Street," LBCI television reported.

President Michel Suleiman ruled out on Friday the postponement of next year's parliamentary polls saying the rotation of power is the right path in democratic life.

In remarks to a delegation from the Loyalty to the Nation Movement, Suleiman said: “In no way the elections would be postponed because the rotation of power is the first path in the practice of democracy.”