Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab, who had suggested early parliamentary elections to solve the presidential crisis, said that the idea was his.

"No one has encouraged me to propose early elections," Bou Saab told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Tuesday, denying that Speaker Nabih Berri or Hezbollah had instructed him to do it, "as some people have imagined."

Auto tycoon Carlos Ghosn has filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Nissan and about a dozen individuals in Beirut over his imprisonment in Japan and what he says is misinformation spread against him, Lebanese officials said Tuesday.

According to the officials, Ghosn's lawsuit accuses Nissan and the individuals of defamation and of "fabricating charges" against him, which eventually put him behind bars in Japan.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has said that neither his party nor the defiance and opposition forces can secure the needed votes for their presidential candidate.

"The only way is consensus," Bassil said in a televised interview, after lawmakers failed last week for a 12th time to elect a new president.

Presidential candidate and ex-minister Jihad Azour “will not respond to those attacking him but will rather talk to the Lebanese through facts and documents,” a media report said on Tuesday.

“Based on the approach of accountability and the principle of transparency, he believes that every Lebanese has the right to have the truth. That’s why Azour is expected to end his presidential silence to respond to the continuous campaign against him over his role as finance minister between 2005 and 2008,” the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported.

A Lebanese judge has questioned auto tycoon Carlos Ghosn in Beirut over possible links to a former French Cabinet minister charged two years ago with "passive corruption" for work she did for him, officials familiar with the case said.

The Lebanese officials said Ghosn denied any dealings with France's former Justice Minister Rachida Dati who is accused of having done consulting work for Ghosn for two years starting in 2010 when she was a member of the European parliament.

Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah defended Monday a legislative session boycotted by 29 opposition and independent MPs.

"Without this session, public sectors employees couldn't have received their salaries," Fadlallah said.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has visited Qatar to discuss the Lebanese presidential file with Qatari officials, media reports said.

The Qataris, encouraged by the U.S., suggested again the nomination of Army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun during their meeting with Bassil on Sunday, al-Akhabar newspaper said.

Bkirki will resume its talks with the Lebanese parties over the presidential file, a media report said on Monday.

The efforts will be launched at the beginning of this week, the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported.

French President Emmanuel Macron's new special envoy for Lebanon heads to Beirut on Wednesday as France seeks a new push to end a political crisis that has left the country without a president for over half a year, a diplomatic source said.

Former foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, appointed by Macron to the role earlier this month, is to fly to Beirut on Wednesday, the source told AFP, asking not to be named.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has suggested that the Hezbollah-led camp “wants to impose the election of Suleiman Franjieh as president, or else it will continue to obstruct the electoral process indefinitely.”

“This camp will not allow electoral sessions in the near future,” Geagea said, in an interview with Lebanon’s French-language daily L'Orient-Le Jour’.