National Struggle Front MP Walid Jumblat said that the new majority proved that it can form a government, noting that it can pass the test and confront the economic and social problems to provide citizens with stability.

“We proved to March 14 forces that we can govern the country, and they have to admit it,” Jumblat told the pan-Arab al-Jazeera news channel on Monday night.

Lebanese Democratic Party leader State Minister and MP Talal Arslan announced on Monday his resignation from the newly-formed government whose lineup was revealed earlier in the day.

He said during a press conference: “In line with my convictions, I announce before the Lebanese people my resignation from the government of the so-called Premier Najib Miqati whom I am not honored to be seated next to.”

The final hours before announcing the long-awaited cabinet line-up witnessed intense contacts and a surprise meeting at the Baabda Palace between President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati.

After 30 minutes, Speaker Nabih Berri joined the meeting after he was invited “urgently and without previous notice,” Al-Manar television reported.

After announcing his long-awaited cabinet formation, Prime Minister Najib Miqati insisted on Monday that the new government line-up, in which Hizbullah and its allies have a majority, will not place the country in the “radical camp.”

"The fact that Hizbullah and its allies have 18 seats in the 30-member cabinet does not mean that the country will join the radical camp in terms of its relations with the international community," Miqati told Agence France Presse.

Sources close to President Michel Suleiman ruled out on Sunday the formation of the new cabinet in the next few days as Premier-designate Najib Miqati’s sources said he hasn’t yet received the names of the candidates of the Free Patriotic Movement and Hizbullah.

The Baabda palace sources told Ad-Diyar daily that Miqati was still seeking to remove the obstacles hindering the formation of the cabinet.

French Ambassador Denis Pietton has hinted that Speaker Nabih Berri’s calls for parliamentary sessions to renew the mandate of the Central Bank governor are unconstitutional.

In an interview published by An Nahar daily on Sunday, Pietton said: “With respect to the renewal of Central Bank governor Riyad Salameh’s mandate, the authorities of institutions should be respected on the basis of separation of powers.”

MP Ahmed Karami has unveiled that he told his ally Premier-designate Najib Miqati that he should be a priority in getting a cabinet seat after Hizbullah and the Amal movement backed bringing Faisal Karami to the new government.

The lawmaker told Kuwait’s al-Seyassah newspaper in remarks published Sunday that “Miqati doesn’t have a problem in giving a seat to Faisal Karami.”

Speaker Nabih Berri expressed his optimism about the positive developments concerning the formation of the new cabinet, urging different parties to speed up the process.

The speaker’s visitors quoted him as saying that “if we continue moving in this manner, the government will be formed soon.”

Lebanese Democratic Party leader MP Talal Arslan said that a meeting held between March 8 officials in parliament on Wednesday focused on solving the obstacles that are delaying the cabinet formation.

Arslan told As Safir newspaper on Thursday that hints that a dispute between President Michel Suleiman and Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun was obstructing the formation of the government are “not true.”

Premier-designate Najib Miqati is expected to visit Baabda palace on Thursday to inform President Michel Suleiman about the latest developments in the cabinet formation process.

An Nahar newspaper said that Miqati held an extensive telephone conversation with Suleiman on Wednesday to update them him about the results of his talks with Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun at parliament and a meeting he held later in the day with Caretaker Minister Jebran Bassil, Speaker Nabih Berri’s aide MP Ali Hassan Khalil and Hassan Khalil, who is Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s assistant.