Speaker Nabih Berri said on Monday that he isn’t willing to call on the cabinet to resign despite its low productivity as there is no other substitute for it.

“We have agreed on the formation of this cabinet because we had no other substitute or a better choice,” Berri told As Safir newspaper.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Sunday stressed “the need to reach a political solution to the problem” in unrest-hit Tripoli that would “spare the army a confrontation on Tripoli and keep it away from political disputes,” warning of “traps set up by the Syrian regime.”

According to a statement issued by the PSP, Jumblat contacted several security and political officials, urging “the release of Mr. Shadi al-Mawlawi and the addressing of the situation according to the legal norms, to prevent the recurrence of illegal arrests by sides that lack jurisdiction.”

The premier of Australia’s New South Wales state, Barry O'Farrell, arrived in Beirut on Sunday at the head of an official delegation for talks with top Lebanese officials.

O’Farrell is scheduled to hold talks with President Michel Suleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri and Premier Najib Miqati during his three-day visit.

Information Minister Walid al-Daouq shrugged off rumors that the March 8 forces were pressuring Premier Najib Miqati into quitting, saying it was up to him to make such a decision.

“Let’s put things straight: The resignation is in the hands of the prime minister,” al-Daouq told An Nahar newspaper in an interview published on Sunday.

A $5.9 billion extra-budgetary spending bill was pulled out of the agenda of a cabinet session set to be held on Wednesday pending a consensus between the different parties that make up the government of Premier Najib Miqati.

An Nahar daily said Sunday that copies of the seven-item agenda was distributed to the cabinet ministers without including in it the controversial bill that is set to legalize the government’s spending for 2011.

Al-Mustaqbal bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora urged the cabinet on Saturday to start preparing the 2012 state budget and to pledge finishing it within two months.

“The problem can’t be resolved in a disorganized and discretionary manner,” Saniora said during a meeting with al-Mustaqbal delegation in his office in Sidon.

Premier Najib Miqati is exerting every effort to guarantee a cabinet consensus on the $5.9 billion extra-budgetary spending of 2011 to avoid an embarrassment after the discussion of the issue was postponed for the second week in a row on Wednesday.

Sources close to Miqati told An Nahar daily published Friday that the solution to the spending crisis continues to face obstacles but hoped that a session set by the PM for next week would give him enough time to find an exit to the bickering between the cabinet’s different members.

Lebanese officials have slammed Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat for criticizing army chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji as a person with limited capabilities.

In remarks to As Safir daily published Friday, the unidentified officials stressed that the army has made a series of achievements whether in southern Lebanon or other areas and has prevented Israel from encroaching on Lebanese territories during its construction of a separation wall on the border.

President Michel Suleiman telephoned on Thursday his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad to condemn the twin Damascus explosions that took place earlier in the day.

He told Assad: “Bombings that have cost the lives of several civilians are not the proper way to achieve democracy.”

The head of the parliamentary Finance and Budget Committee MP Ibrahim Kanaan held President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati responsible for the current “poor” situation regarding the government spending file.

He told As Safir newspaper in remarks published on Thursday: “Their failure to approve the $5.9 billion spending bill is aimed at vindicating previous governments at the expense of public funds and the constitution.”