Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati said on Thursday that his cabinet can't pay Lebanon's share of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon funding.

“The caretaker cabinet can't be responsible for the matter as it falls under current expenditure,” Miqati said in comments published in An Nahar newspaper.

The rebel Free Syrian Army on Monday claimed that Hizbullah elusive commander Mustafa Badreddine -- who is accused of involvement in former premier Rafik Hariri's murder – is leading the group's operations in the Syrian town of Qusayr.

“It has been confirmed that Mustafa Badreddine is present on Qusayr's front where he is leading Hizbullah's operations,” said a statement issued by the FSA.

Head of the international tribunal's defense office Francois Roux reiterated calls for the Lebanese authorities to swiftly respond to the defense office's requests that are approved by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon's Pre-Trial Judge, Daniel Fransen.

He considered in an interview with An Nahar newspaper that any delay in cooperation will have an impact on the trial.

The U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon announced Monday it will appoint a special investigator to probe “three incidents which could potentially be considered interference with the administration of justice through publication of alleged witness identities.”

STL President Judge David Baragwanath, acting as the Contempt Judge for the month of April, took the decision on Monday to have an amicus curiae (friend of the court) appointed by the Registrar, with the Judge’s approval, to further investigate these three incidents.

The trial in absentia of four Hizbullah members for the 2005 bombing that killed former premier Rafik Hariri will likely start in late 2013, a court spokesman said on Tuesday.

"The prosecution has indicated the fourth quarter of 2013 as to when they would be ready for trial," Marten Youssef, spokesman for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, told Agence France Presse.

The trial at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination case will start next autumn, informed sources told An Nahar daily published Friday.

The sources hinted that both the prosecution and the defense have completed the preparations for the start of trial.

President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon Sir David Baragwanath concluded on Thursday a four-day visit to Lebanon during which he met with a number of officials, during which he thanked them for the “generous” support Lebanon has shown to the tribunal, he announced in a statement.

He said: “We will ensure a trial that is fair, expeditious and conducted with full respect for the rights of the accused and due regard for the protection of victims and witnesses.”

General prosecutor Judge Hatem Madi denied on Tuesday that his office was behind the leaked information on the alleged witnesses in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's Feb. 2005 assassination case.

A statement released by his press office said Madi told visiting STL President Judge David Baragwanath and his accompanying delegation that “his bureau was not responsible for the leaked information because it was not in its possession.”

State Prosecutor Judge Hatem Madi on Friday announced that the Lebanese judiciary will take legal steps concerning the recent publishing of an alleged list of witnesses in the case of former premier Rafik Hariri once the Special Tribunal for Lebanon asks for that.

“Once we receive a request from the STL on the publishing of the names of alleged secret witnesses, we will make all the steps needed to identify the side that published the names,” Madi said after a meeting with STL Registrar Herman von Hebel.

Mustaqbal bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora condemned on Friday the release of the names and identities of alleged witnesses in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

He demanded in a statement “the government, officials, and justice minister to crackdown in those who leaked the names to media and who are practicing political and media terrorism.”