Premier-designate Najib Miqati is holding on to his constitutional rights in forming the new cabinet, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Saturday.

“If I began my governmental career by abandoning the constitution, what will I be left with?” his visitors quoted him as asking.

Speaker Nabih Berri confirmed that Premier-designate Najib Miqati has no substitute and stressed that his continued efforts to form the cabinet didn’t end yet.

“Others have taken longer time trying to accomplish this task,” Berri told An Nahar newspaper published Wednesday.

United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams has expressed “shock” at the number of deaths in the border town of Maroun al-Ras when Israeli forces opened fire on demonstrators on Nakba Day on Sunday.

“I am shocked by the number of the deaths and the use of disproportionate, deadly force by the Israeli Defense Forces against apparently unarmed demonstrators,” Williams said Monday after holding talks with Premier-designate Najib Miqati.

President Michel Suleiman stressed that there are no more disagreements over the government formation now that the dispute over the Interior Ministry has been resolved, adding that other sides are responsible for creating obstacles.

He said: “Some sides believe that they are entitled to the Defense, Health, and Education portfolios that they will demand ten ministries, including nine portfolios.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said on Saturday that the main parties involved in the cabinet formation, especially Hizbullah and Syria, want a confrontational government.

“Hizbullah and Syria are heading towards a confrontational cabinet, while President Michel Suleiman and Premier-designate Najib Miqati want a cabinet that is closest possible to the Lebanese reality,” Geagea told Free Lebanon radio.

The Syrian green light for the quick formation of the new government in Lebanon began receding, An Nahar daily said Saturday despite insistence by Premier-designate Najib Miqati that he wasn’t being pressured by foreign parties.

Sources following up the formation of the cabinet said that the green light received from Damascus succeeded in finding a solution to the interior ministry deadlock but later brought the cabinet formation crisis to a standstill after flashing orange.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat expressed the Syrian officials’ annoyance over the delay in the Lebanese cabinet formation, after his return from Damascus Thursday night.

“The Syrian officials are aware of the true reasons behind the delay in the government formation,” according to information obtained by al-Liwaa newspaper on Friday.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly on Thursday held talks with Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati and discussed with him the U.S. administration’s “developing view on the dramatic events that have occurred and continue to occur in the region,” the U.S. Embassy said in a statement after the meeting.

“Connelly expressed the U.S. government’s view that the governments of the region ought to listen to their people, refrain from violence, and engage in political dialogue in order to insure that the legitimate changes and reforms they demand can begin to be implemented,” according to the embassy’s statement.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Monday called for forming a technocrat cabinet, describing that as “the only solution to rescue the country from the current impasse.”

“A national unity cabinet is out of the question because we can’t reach an agreement on the major issues,” Geagea added in an interview with MTV.

Najib Miqati said that he was ashamed of providing al-Akhbar newspaper with a 150,000 dollar budget, said a November 12, 2006, WikiLeaks cable published exclusively in al-Jumhuriya newspaper on Thursday.

During a meeting between with then U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman, the former prime minister was asked about his ties to al-Akhbar.