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.

The office of the U.N. human rights chief said on Friday that it was extremely worried about reports that 700 to 850 people have been killed in Syria's pro-democracy protests since March.

A spokesman for U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay again urged Syrian authorities to halt its bid to "silence opponents".

At least five people were killed in Syria, activists said, despite an order from President Bashar Assad for security forces not to open fire on protesters and an offer of dialogue.

Friday's bloodshed cast a pall over the government's pledges to forge ahead with reforms in Syria, which has been gripped by two months of deadly protests.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned Friday against foreign intervention in Syria, calling on the Syrian opposition not to seek a repeat of the "Libya scenario".

"We are very worried that the process of reconciliation, the process of the start of dialogue ... is being slowed down by a desire of some participants to attract foreign forces to support their actions," Russian news agencies quoted Lavrov as saying.

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.

Nearly two months after the kidnapping of seven Estonian cyclists in Lebanon, the case remains shrouded in mystery with little information gleaned on their whereabouts or those behind the abduction.

The seven men, all in their 30s, were nabbed on March 23 shortly after entering Lebanon on their bicycles from neighboring Syria.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea blasted Hizbullah on Thursday for allegedly targeting the country’s democracy saying Lebanon’s problems would not be solved without a solution to the Shiite party’s arms.

“We are living today in a state of emergency and have a problem given the presence of an armed party” that cripples “democratic work,” Geagea told a visiting delegation from the Popular University in Batroun.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid denied that he had information about the possible formation of the new government in the next 24 hours, hoping that the parties would speed up the process.

“We have to speed up the cabinet formation and to take into consideration the repercussions of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and other issues,” Jumblat said in remarks published in newspapers on Thursday.

Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare has reached new leads in his investigation that accuses Syrian officials of involvement in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s 2005 assassination, sources in The Hague told Naharnet.

They said Bellemare put his new information in the amended indictment that he filed to pre-trial judge Daniel Fransen last week.

A security official revealed that Syria is “exerting great pressure on Beirut to prevent displaced Syrians from entering Lebanon,” reported UK’s the Guardian on Tuesday.

It also urged Lebanese authorities to halt alleged arms smuggling to Syrian protesters where the demonstrations have taken on the form of a sectarian rebellion, and not a revolution similar to others that had taken place in the Arab world, it added.