Premier-designate Najib Miqati was reportedly readying a cabinet lineup had Hizbullah agreed to name its ministers but the Shiite group stressed that a solution to the bickering between President Michel Suleiman and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun should be found before making that step.

As Safir daily said Wednesday that Hizbullah’s stance was seen as a covert support for Aoun who is demanding the interior ministry portfolio as part of his share in the new government. But Suleiman is adamant on keeping the ministry which is headed by Ziad Baroud in the caretaker cabinet.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stressed the need for renewing contacts between caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri and between Speaker Nabih Berri and Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

The severance of contacts will only lead to more problems, he said.

Building violations on state property have reached dangerous proportions after violations neared the fence of Rafik Hariri international airport, An Nahar newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The daily said that violators had built illegally on state property near the new 16th seaside tarmac of the airport and the old number 17 runway, the daily said, warning that such a move could go all the way towards putting the facility on the international blacklist.

Caretaker Foreign Minister Ali al-Shami’s latest instructions to Lebanon’s ambassador to the U.N. drew the ire of the March 14 forces that accused him of overstepping President Michel Suleiman and Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri.

Al-Shami instructed Ambassador Nawaf Salam on Tuesday not to approve a draft Security Council statement criticizing Syria for its crackdown on anti-regime protesters.

More than 100 Lebanese activists, journalists and intellectuals signed a petition on Tuesday in solidarity with protesters in Syria, Beirut's former military and political power broker.

"We the undersigned... condemn the oppression of the Syrian people... and declare our solidarity with them in their battle to regain their freedom and dignity," read the petition, a copy of which was obtained by Agence France Presse.

France has said that all Lebanese parties should work together through dialogue to preserve the unity and sovereignty of their country.

“It is important that Lebanese parties work together with the mentality of dialogue and understanding to preserve the unity, sovereignty and independence of Lebanon,” the French foreign ministry spokesman said in response to a question on French Ambassador Denis Pietton’s call for consensus on the new cabinet.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati’s office in Beirut was evacuated after receiving a hoax bomb threat, security sources told An Nahar newspaper in remarks published Wednesday.

The sources said Miqati received on Tuesday morning an anonymous phone call saying there was an explosive at his office in Verdun.

The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday noted that "there are no real indications" that the new cabinet will see light anytime soon.

In a statement issued after its weekly meeting under ex-PM Fouad Saniora, the bloc derided the "promises" made in that regard "by those who are saying that they are part of the cabinet formation process."

Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati on Tuesday held talks with President Michel Suleiman at the Baabda Palace away from the media spotlight, state-run National News Agency reported.

Talks tackled "the latest developments concerning the cabinet formation process in light of the ongoing consultations and contacts," NNA added.

Speaker Nabih Berri demanded on Tuesday that the investigation into alleged Lebanese meddling in Syrian affairs should be conducted in a legal framework.

He said during a ceremony commemorating poet Najib Jamaledddine: ““All Lebanese should be keener on Syria’s security and stability than the Syrians themselves.”