Speaker Nabih Berri tasked on Thursday head of the Finance and Budget Committee MP Ibrahim Kanaan with chairing next week's joint parliamentary committees meeting, reported the National News Agency.

The meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, will tackle the new wage scale draft-law.

The Petroleum Authority has been active in assessing the gas and oil reserves in ten offshore blocks despite the failure of the government to approve two essential decrees, As Safir daily reported on Thursday.

The newspaper said that the authority and a French institution completed three months ago the map of reserves in Lebanon's Exclusive Economic Zone.

Speaker Nabih Berri held talks on Wednesday with Education Minister Elias Bou Saab and a delegation from the Syndicate Coordination Committee on the new wage scale.

Bou Saab stated after the talks that Berri requested the concerned officials to call for a joint parliamentary committees meeting on Tuesday to address the hike.

Speaker Nabih Berri postponed anew a parliamentary session set to elect a new head of state after he expressed pessimism over the near end of the crisis.

The 20th session was adjourned to April 2 over lack of quorum.

The Progressive Socialist Party clarified Tuesday afternoon the content of an interview for party chief MP Walid Jumblat with As Safir newspaper, noting that his son, Taymour, will run normally in parliamentary elections “just like other candidates.”

The line saying “Jumblat will hand over his Shouf parliamentary seat to his son Taymour in May” was “inaccurate”, the PSP said in a statement.

Lebanese authorities are tackling a new file trying to find a location to safely store radioactive material in a manner that meets the standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Defense Minister Samir Moqbel had suggested to store the material in one of Adloun's military barracks in the south which did not meet the state's approval.

Speaker Nabih Berri intends to call for a parliamentary session this month, a move that requires consultations with the rival blocs over the vacuum at Baabda Palace.

Al-Liwaa daily on Tuesday quoted Berri as telling his visitors that he is seeking to call for a session by the end of March.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun spoke Monday of “some progress” regarding the presidential crisis, without revealing details.

“The presidential vote has crossed some stages and God willing it will continue in this manner,” said Aoun after meeting Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain al-Tineh.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stressed the need on Monday for Lebanon to tackle its offshore oil and gas wealth, saying that tenders should be launched to that end.

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anba website: “Lebanon should announce these tenders for it to take advantage of its wealth and preserve its rights before they are stolen wasted, or lost.”

Speaker Nabih Berri has lauded the Lebanese army for confronting jihadists on the eastern border with Syria and arresting several terrorist networks.

In remarks to his visitors, Berri described the army's role as “a huge achievement that deserves appreciation and support.”