Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah helped facilitate Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati’s mission to form a new government by refraining from setting any conditions on the process, revealed Hizbullah circles to the Kuwaiti al-Rai on Sunday.

They explained that Nasrallah had informed Miqati in their last meeting that he is free to support and even finance the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and choose whichever ministerial portfolios he wants to grant the party.

The daily An Nahar revealed on Sunday that Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat and the head of the Mustaqbal bloc Fouad Saniora met over dinner at a mutual friend’s house a few says ago.

It added that members of Jumblat’s National Struggle Front were also present.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi returned to Lebanon from Italy on Saturday where he met with Pope Benedict XVI.

He stated from the airport upon his return: “The country can no longer endure the paralysis of its institutions.”

Speaker Nabih Berri stated that the government formation in Lebanon is moving at “turtle pace”, noting however that Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati’s recent statements from Baabda are a positive sign that it will be established soon.

He told the daily An Nahar in remarks published on Sunday: “We hope the new government will live up to the Lebanese people’s expectations.”

Syrian troops have deployed along Syria’s border with Lebanon on Saturday in an effort to combat terrorism, reported the daily An Nahar Sunday.

It added that the Syrian border patrol have intensified their procedures along the Syrian-Lebanese border.

An inmate died of burn injuries he suffered during the raid of the Internal Security Forces on Roumieh prison last week, one of his family members told Agence France Presse on Saturday.

Nasser Darwish, who hails from the eastern Bekaa town of Brital, died at hospital of severe burn injuries, his brother told AFP.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon denied on Saturday media reports that peacekeepers had carried out a joint operation with security forces in Rashaya al-Fekhar in search for the kidnapped Estonian tourists.

“UNIFIL does not carry out any operation outside its area of operations that falls south of the Litani river,” UNIFIL spokesman Neeraj Singh said in remarks carried by the state-run National News Agency.

Speaker Nabih Berri lamented that the March 8 forces were no longer finding excuses to justify the deadlock in the government formation, said pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Saturday.

Berri reportedly told his visitors that he did not understand the reasons that were delaying the formation of the new cabinet. They quoted the speaker as saying “we can no longer find excuses … particularly that we form a single team and are united in our choices.”

The meeting that will bring together Lebanon’s top Christian leaders in Bkirki next week does not have an agenda but would be followed by other meetings that could expand to include more officials, sources from the seat of the Maronite church said.

“There won’t be any agenda … because the meeting is considered an achievement and will be followed by other meetings that include more Christian” officials, the sources told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat in remarks published Saturday.

Premier-designate Najib Miqati continued his consultations to break the impasse over the new government makeup after urging the leaders of the main parties to facilitate the formation of his cabinet.

Miqati held talks with the Hizbullah leader’s aide, Hussein Khalil, twice on Friday. He also met twice with the speaker’s assistant, MP Ali Hassan Khalil.