The head of the Beirut Merchant Association Nicolas Shammas said Wednesday that the private sector would adopt a tough response to a government approval to boost wages.

Representatives of the public sector are scheduled to hold a meeting at 3:00 pm to voice their outrage at the wage increase over fears that companies will have to lay off workers and even shut down their businesses.

Lebanon’s decision to abstain from voting on the U.N. Security Council resolution against the Syrian regime triggered wide reactions locally, especially among the March 8 forces and the March 14-led opposition that strongly criticized it, An Nahar newspaper reported on Thursday.

Sources told the daily that the Foreign Ministry had directed Lebanon's Special Envoy to the U.N. Nawaf Salam to vote against the resolution, but urgent discussions among officials favored that Lebanon abstain from voting.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat said on Wednesday that if he held talks with former Prime Minister Saad Hariri the meeting will be announced and would not be “secret.”

“We didn’t hold a meeting, why are you making a big fuss out of it?” he wondered in remarks published in al-Liwaa newspaper.

The government is expected to discuss the appointment of the head of the Lebanese University on Wednesday along with 150 items on the agenda and 8 additional topics distributed to ministers on Monday.

The cabinet session at Baabda palace is expected to last for several hours or the discussion of several items could be postponed for another session over the packed agenda, An Nahar daily expected on Tuesday.

The roads near the U.N. building in downtown Beirut, ESCWA, were closed and traffic was directed to nearby streets on Friday after reports that the premises could be targeted in an attack similar to the bombings on UNIFIL patrols in the South.

Al-Liwaa daily reported that the road east of the building and another known as the ESCWA tunnel was closed upon a decision by the Internal Security Forces’ head of the Beirut traffic department Brig. Gen. Mohammed al-Ayyoubi.

U.N. Chief Ban Ki-Moon on Tuesday said that he is interested in seeing the Lebanese government secure the necessary funding for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

After meeting PM Najib Miqati in New York , Ki-Moon said that the “U.N. stresses on Lebanon’s stability, prosperity, and unity” adding that the U.N. is satisfied with the cooperation between the Lebanese Army and the UNIFIL.”

During his meeting with Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Friday, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi told the premier that he had asked French President Nicolas Sarkozy to convince ex-PM Saad Hariri to return to Beirut and reconcile with Miqati, MTV and LBC television networks reported.

“I am ready for any positive step,” MTV quoted Miqati as telling al-Rahi.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Sunday confirmed remarks attributed to him by a WikiLeaks document about describing Hizbullah as a “tumor,” but stressed that his words were taken out of context and that he had described the Shiite party as a “non-malignant tumor.”

“Everything published by WikiLeaks about me is true, but some remarks were taken out of context. I did describe Hizbullah as a ‘tumor,’ but I stressed that it is a ‘non-malignant tumor’,” Miqati said in an interview on Al-Jadeed television.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati will probably meet with Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz during his visit to the country to perform the Omra.

Sources told al-Liwaa newspaper on Friday that the Lebanese officials are observing how the official Saudi reception of the PM will be.

A ministerial meeting held Monday failed to reach a final agreement on an electricity plan suggested by Energy and Water Minister Jebran Bassil, under which $1.2 billion would be earmarked to buy 700 Megawatts of electricity.

“The four-phase plan, which will cost the state $5 billion, should be flawless legally and administratively in order to gain approval,” ministerial sources told LBC television.