The appointments of top civil servants and diplomats will be discussed by the cabinet next week at a session that will be headed by President Michel Suleiman at Baabda palace, An Nahar newspaper reported on Wednesday.

“There is a thorough review for all the vacant administrative positions (in government institutions) in order to issue a comprehensive package,” Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s sources told the daily.

The cabinet is expected to discuss a new wage hike next week after the Shura Council rejected on Tuesday a previous decree proposed by Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas on the increase of salaries.

The General Labor Confederation and the Economic Committees that had agreed to set the minimum wage at L675,000 – excluding the transportation allowance - welcomed the Shura Council’s rejection of the government decision aimed at setting the minimum salary at LL868,000 including a LL236,000 transportation allowance.

The allies of Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun in the March 8 forces are pressuring him into being “rational” and “dealing positively” with the Shura Council’s rejection of a wage hike proposal made by Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas who is loyal to Aoun.

An Nahar and As Safir newspapers said Wednesday that March 8 leaders are urging Aoun’s “Change and Reform bloc to deal positively with the decision of the Shura Council under the slogan of preserving the interests of workers and employees.”

Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn on Tuesday said the army has “clear information” about the presence of al-Qaida members in the Bekaa border town of Arsal, noting that “the army raided Arsal in search of Hamza Qarqouz,” who is believed to be an al-Qaida militant who had fled from Syria to Lebanon.

In an interview on OTV, Ghosn added: “It is our duty as politicians and officials to announce that there is an infiltration by some extremists, including al-Qaida members, through the borders, and it is our duty not to conceal things.”

Energy and Water Minister Jebran Bassil on Tuesday said he visited Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Bkirki to “inform him of the deliberate obstruction” of the plans proposed by the ministers of the Free Patriotic Movement in cabinet.

“The seat of the patriarchate is the place that gathers everyone and preserves the principles, that’s why we have to inform His Eminence of all the vital information and the fears and concerns we live daily with as ministers, whether concerning the administration or the appointments,” Bassil told reporters after the meeting.

Israel is considering walling off part of its border with Lebanon, fearing sniper fire at newly-built apartment blocks in the frontier town of Metulla, Israeli military sources said on Tuesday.

They said Israel was liaising with Lebanese and U.N. officials with a view to erecting an anti-sniper wall along a kilometer-long section of the frontier between Metulla and Kfarkila, a Lebanese village which at one point had a high-rise casino adjacent to the existing border fence.

The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc renewed on Tuesday its support for the wage hike deal that was reached between the General Labor Confederation and the Economic Committees.

It warned in a statement after its weekly meeting “the government against taking financial and economic adventures that would negatively affect Lebanon.”

Change and Reform bloc MP Michel al-Helou revealed on Tuesday that the bloc has decided to form a committee to study the Shura Council’s rejection of the government’s wage hike decree.

He said after the bloc’s weekly meeting: “Our initial assessment has determined that the Shura Council’s decision has legal flaws.”

The Free Patriotic Movement on Tuesday slammed “what Premier Najib Miqati has been saying about an infringement of the premiership’s powers,” stressing that the prime minister has been “acting in excess of his jurisdiction and in fact infringing on the powers of others.”

“Every now and then, Prime Minister Najib Miqati voices stances in the media that carry a lot of fallacies and overbidding, through which he attacks who he claims are parties ‘infringing on the powers’ of the premiership, which represents an infringement of the Sunni sect’s rights -- as he claims,” the FPM’s press office said in a statement.

Lebanon will host this month a U.N. conference on democracy in the Arab world, with a slew of high-level dignitaries, including U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, due to attend, organizers and Lebanese officials said Tuesday.

The two-day conference entitled "Reform and Transitions to Democracy" will be held January 15 and 16. It is organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).