The extension of parliament's mandate has become a foregone conclusion after both Speaker Nabih Berri and al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora hinted that there was no option but to extend the term of lawmakers despite a veto by influential Christian figures.

Saniora told al-Mustaqbal daily in remarks published on Wednesday that he discussed with Berri a day earlier the extension of the legislature's tenure.

Kataeb Party MP Sami Gemayel held talks Tuesday in Jeddah with Saudi Arabia's Deputy Crown Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz and Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal.

Gemayel also met with al-Mustaqbal movement leader MP Saad Hariri, according to a statement issued by Kataeb.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea traveled to Saudi Arabia on Monday evening on an “official visit.”

“The chief of the LF party left this evening for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia via Beirut's airport, on an official visit during which he will meet with top Saudi officials,” Geagea's press office said in a statement.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Friday reiterated his support for his presidential nominee MP Henri Helou as Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea announced that there is “nothing new” in the issue of the stalled presidential vote.

“Talks were frank and positive ... and there were points of agreement and contention, but in the end we only have the choice of dialogue,” Jumblat said following talks with Geagea in Maarab.

Head of the Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun slammed on Friday consultations between al-Mustaqbal movement chief Saad Hariri and Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi over the names of the presidential candidates.

“They can talk as much as they want... I will not withdraw my candidacy and I will never back down,” Aoun's visitors quoted him as saying in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

Bkirki spokesman Walid Ghayyad has denied that Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and al-Mustaqbal movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri have discussed the names of presidential candidates.

Ghayyad told al-Mustaqbal daily that al-Rahi and Hariri agreed during their meeting in Rome Monday on the need to intensify efforts to elect a new president.

The names of several presidential candidates have been discussed as potential figures to fill the ongoing vacuum at the Baabda Palace, local newspapers reported on Tuesday.

An Nahar newspaper reported that head of the Mustaqbal Movement MP Saad Hariri discussed last week with French President Francois Hollande in Paris the names of four candidates from the March 14 alliance and three centrists.

The Change and Reform parliamentary bloc on Tuesday strongly criticized the stances of March 14's general secretariat and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on the recent clashes in Brital, warning that “the terrorists could be plotting a new military operation.”

“We are now facing two 'forbidden things' -- it is forbidden to respond against terrorism outside Lebanon to fend off the threats and it is forbidden to respond from inside Lebanon,” the bloc said sarcastically in a statement issued after its weekly meeting, referring to Hizbullah's intervention in Syria and its latest battle against jihadist militants in the outskirts of the Bekaa border town of Brital.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea noted on Monday that the attack launched by gunmen from Syria against Hizbullah positions in the eastern region of Brital demonstrates the need for the government to take the necessary action to guarantee the safety of Lebanese territories.

He told the Central News Agency: “The government should take a binding decision to force Hizbullah to withdraw from Syria.”

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea has denied that he was hindering the election of a new president, laying the blame instead on his rival MP Michel Aoun, who heads the Free Patriotic Movement.

“Aoun is theoretically after the presidency but he is practically paralyzing the elections and suggesting” that the polls should not be held if he does not reach Baabda Palace, Geagea said.