Secretary of Bakeries Syndicate Anis Beshara warned on Friday that the price of the 900-gram bread pack will increase to LL2,000 if the government decided to lift subsidies on wheat starting February.

He voiced hope, in comments published in al-Joumhouria newspaper, that the current price of the standard bread pack would remain at LL1,500, in particular, amid the present dire economy situation.

President Michel Suleiman is scheduled on January 22 to visit Moscow where he will meet with his Russian counterpart and receive an award on his role in calling for dialogue and opening channels of communication between bickering parties, the Central News Agency reported.

CNA said Thursday that Suleiman's two-day visit comes following an official invitation sent by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill I.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati played down differences between cabinet members on the Syrian refugees in Lebanon saying relief aid to the displaced will continue despite a heated debate on government measures to deal with the situation.

In remarks to As Safir daily published on Friday, Miqati said: “We are responsible towards the refugee issue from its humanitarian and moral aspects.”

Speaker Nabih Berri expressed optimism on Friday over the upcoming meeting of the parliamentary electoral subcommittee, saying that he rejects the adoption of an electoral draft law proposed by the Butros Committee.

Berri, in comments published in al-Joumhouria newspaper, hoped that the subcommittee meeting, which is tasked with discussing the electoral system and the number and size of districts, on Tuesday would constitute a breakthrough to the dispute over the electoral law.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel revealed on Friday that he is ready to run for the presidency after the tenure of President Michel Suleiman ends in 2014, pointing out that the upcoming parliamentary elections can be held only if the political foes reach consensus over the electoral law.

I will become the next president “if I was asked, and they agreed on my candidacy... But I refuse to be a president who has no decision,” Charbel said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

An exchange of gunfire erupted on Thursday evening in Sidon between members of the Popular Nasserite Organization led by ex-MP Osama Saad and the Hizbullah-affiliated Resistance Brigades, leaving one person dead and three others wounded.

Future TV said “fierce clashes erupted in the Nazlet Sidon area between a group belonging to the Popular Nasserite Organization and another belonging to 'Hizbullah's brigades'.”

The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Thursday announced that it will not return to the national dialogue table before the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Miqati's government, calling for a “regional-international conference” that would help Lebanon cope with the influx of refugees from war-torn Syria.

“There is no alternative to dialogue ... but dialogue must be productive and beneficial for the Lebanese, not a media event that Hizbullah would use as a cover to carry on with its scheme that aims to militarily control the state and the country and its institutions,” the bloc said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun said on Thursday that the Bkirki meetings that were held between Christian leaders to reach an agreement over a new parliamentary electoral law found that the Orthodox Gathering law offers the best representation, followed by the law based on proportional representation.

He said: “I am ready to accept any electoral law on condition that the president's privileges be restored to what they were before the Taif Accord.”

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel indirectly criticized on Thursday Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's recent call on the government to hold negotiations with the kidnappers of Lebanese pilgrims held in Syria's Aazaz region.

He said ahead of a cabinet session at the Baabda Palace: “The state is holding direct negotiations with the abductors.”

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah rejected on Thursday a suggestion that the Lebanese-Syrian border be closed due to the state's inability to support the burden of refugees pouring in from the war-torn country.

He said during a televised speech marking 40 days after Ashura: “The border with Syria should not be shut and the refugees, regardless if they support or oppose the Syrian regime, should be hosted in Lebanon.”