Opposition MP Butros Harb rejected on Sunday the extension of the tenure of the current parliament, stressing that the March 14 alliance was able to bridge the gap among its members.

“In principle I reject extending (the term of the parliament). I have never agreed on violating the constitution,” Harb said in an interview with An Nahar newspaper.

Al-Mustaqbal MP Ahmed Fatfat revealed on Sunday that talks will resume with the Progressive Socialist Party later in the day over a hybrid electoral law.

“We will resume discussions on Sunday although Hizbullah and the Free Patriotic Movement reject the adoption of such a law, which threatens the polls,” Fatfat said in comments published in An Nahar newspaper.

President Michel Suleiman said Lebanese armed forces must prevent the infiltration of fighters across the border with Syria, and that he has given instructions to them to arrest militants.

Suleiman made the remarks while meeting with the Lebanese community in the Ivory Coast during an official visit, according to a statement from his office on Saturday.

Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Najib Miqati are expected to travel to Rome on Saturday night to attend the new pope's inauguration and congratulate him on his election, An Nahar daily reported.

Environment Minister Nazem al-Khoury will accompany Berri and Miqati, it said.

President Michel Suleiman stated on Friday that the Lebanese authorities “are in charge of preventing gunmen from sneaking into Syrian territories”, reiterating the cabinet's disassociation policy towards the neighboring country's conflict.

"The army is responsible for prohibiting any violations of the Baabda Declaration on the border with Syria,” Suleiman said in a joint press conference with Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara.

President Michel Suleiman has stressed that Lebanon will continue to implement a U.N. resolution that halted the Israel-Hizbullah war in 2006 in an attempt to restore sovereignty on all its territories.

“With the support of the international community, Lebanon will continue to work to implement Security Council resolution 1701 in an effort to restore sovereignty on all its territories,” Suleiman said on Thursday during a dinner banquet thrown by the President of Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara, in his honor.

Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi rejected on Friday to comment on reports saying that officials are mulling the extension of his tenure, which ends in April.

Rifi said in comments published in the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Anbaa that the matter is a “political affair.”

The Gulf countries have no intention to take extreme measures against the Lebanese expats on their territories, but they will not tolerate any person undermining the Gulf Cooperation Council states stability, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Friday.

A GCC diplomat told the newspaper that the Gulf authorities will not tolerate any security threat that is a priority.

President Michel Suleiman said Wednesday that rival leaders should adopt an electoral vote law that is consistent with the Taef accord away from political confessionalism.

MPs should “find a law that is consistent with the Taef and does not take back (the country) to sectarian laws,” Suleiman told Lebanese expatriates in Senegal on the second day of his visit to the West African country before heading to the Ivory Coast on Thursday.

The justice ministry's higher consultative committee tasked with studying the legality of adopting the 1960 law in the upcoming parliamentary elections will hold talks on Thursday to decide the fate of the electoral law.

“The meeting could be the last one depending on the discussions among the members of the committee,” Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi told As Safir newspaper.