Speaker Nabih Berri stated on Saturday that the government formation process has become more complicated, saying that a government will not be formed any time soon.

He told al-Jadeed television: “We reached a solution, but then we regressed.”

There were conflicting reports on Friday on whether a meeting between Premier-designate Najib Miqati and the envoys of Speaker Nabih Berri, Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun was held the day before.

An Nahar daily quoted March 8 sources as saying that the meeting that was scheduled to be held between Miqati, MP Ali Hassan Khalil, Hussein Khalil and Jebran Bassil on Thursday afternoon was postponed in a sign that the three envoys haven’t yet prepared answers to some specific points.

Speaker Nabih Berri reassured Lebanese citizens on Wednesday that the government formation is making a “tangible progress” and the atmosphere is better than before.

There is a strong insistence to speed up the cabinet formation and intensive work is underway to reach the expected results, the speaker reportedly told lawmakers during his weekly meetings with MPs. There is “tangible progress,” he said.

Speaker Nabih Berri expressed his great disgust with Lebanese officials’ preoccupation with the “futile” debate over the Interior Ministry portfolio, while completely ignoring the developments in the region.

He told As Safir newspaper in remarks published on Tuesday: “Any portfolio will be worthless if the regional instability hit Lebanon.”

Premier-designate Najib Miqati rejected attempts to throw the cabinet delay ball in his court, deciding to give consultations more time after Speaker Nabih Berri informed him that a de facto government would lead to negative repercussions, As Safir daily reported Monday.

Miqati’s circles told the newspaper that Miqati complied with the demand of Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat to back off from a plan to announce a de facto cabinet.

Speaker Nabih Berri has lamented that the Lebanese were watching the regional turmoil at a time when they are bickering on the interior ministry portfolio rather than speeding up the formation of the new cabinet.

Berri’s visitors told An Nahar and As Safir newspapers that the speaker wondered how Lebanese officials were still busy fighting on the portfolio amid dramatic developments in the region.

Speaker Nabih Berri has urged the Lebanese to set the preservation of their country as a priority saying the “adherence to privileges” was preventing the establishment of the state.

“Lebanon needs the confirmation of its citizens that it represents a top priority for them,” Berri said during the annual charity dinner held by the Lebanese Association for the Welfare of the Disabled at BIEL on Saturday night.

Officials involved in the formation of the new government are mulling new names to head the interior ministry after President Michel Suleiman and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun failed to agree on who would name the minister.

High-ranking March 8 sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Sunday that some parties suggested naming Ghaleb Ghanem, the former head of the Higher Judicial Council, as interior minister given that he is Maronite and a neutral personality.

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams stressed on Friday the need for the formation of a functioning government “the sooner the better.”

He said after holding talks with Speaker Nabih Berri: “There are many concerns of importance to ordinary Lebanese people that need to be addressed, irrespective of their confession or their politics.”

Premier-designate Najib Miqati has for now shelved efforts to form a de facto government and vowed to give the cabinet formation process more time after talks with Speaker Nabih Berri, Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat and other mediators.

As part of intensified efforts to end the row between Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun and President Michel Suleiman over the interior ministry portfolio, Miqati met Thursday night with Berri, Jumblat, the speaker’s advisor MP Ali Hassan Khalil, and Hussein Khalil, a political aide to Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.