Premier-designate Najib Miqati has reportedly described Hizbullah as "cancerous" calling for ending the statelet that the party has built to allegedly safeguard Lebanon.

In a WikiLeaks cable published by al-Joumhouria daily on Tuesday, Miqati told former U.S. ambassador Michele Sison that Hizbullah is a "cancerous tumor" and called for removing its statelet whether it was "malignant or benign."

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Monday blamed President Michel Suleiman and premier-designate Najib Miqati for the delay in forming the new cabinet.

In an interview with Hizbullah’s mouthpiece Al-Manar television, Aoun said parliamentary blocs have no “unreasonable” demands, noting that “the PM-designate’s demands are complicating the cabinet formation process, not the blocs’ demands.”

The authorities in Syria on Monday set a deadline of 15 days for people who had committed "unlawful acts" to give themselves up, as a wave of arrests was reported across the country.

The ultimatum came as activists planned fresh anti-government demonstrations following the deaths of dozens of people in weekend protests.

The number of Syrians seeking refuge in the Wadi Khaled region in Lebanon from the unrest in their country has diminished after the redeployment of Syrian border troops in the area adjacent to Lebanon, reported the daily An Nahar Sunday.

Hundreds of Syrian families flooded into the al-Buqayaa area last week following violence against anti-regime protestors in Syria.

Syrian army troops backed by tanks and three helicopters on Saturday took a prominent mosque that had been controlled by residents in a besieged southern city killing four people, a witness said.

The operation in the town of Daraa came a day after President Bashar Assad unleashed deadly force to crush a months-old revolt, killing at least 65 people, mostly in the border town.

Unrest in Syria could spread to neighboring Lebanon at any moment in light of charges by Damascus that the March 14 forces are backing anti-regime protesters, analysts say.

"Merely stating that Lebanese parties are interfering in Syrian affairs is equivalent to threatening to destabilize Lebanon, irrespective of whether charges of funding and arming the protesters are accurate," said Ghassan el-Ezzi, professor of political science at the Lebanese University.

U.S. President Barack Obama has extended the national emergency with respect to the actions of the Syrian government, saying that its support for Hizbullah and Hamas and meddling in Lebanon makes it a threat to national security.

Syria’s ongoing pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, support for anti-Israel groups and interference in Lebanon make it a "continuing unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States," said a White House statement.

The U.S. on Friday imposed new sanctions on Syria over its violent repression of protests, and again singled out Iran's Revolutionary Guard, which it said was aiding the crackdown, as the EU agreed to impose an arms embargo against Damascus.

The asset freezes and restrictions on financial transactions notably targeted Maher al-Assad, the powerful brother of President Bashar Al-Assad, who commands Syria's feared Fourth Armored Division.

Fleeing violence in Syria, Umm Maher left her husband and six sons behind and crossed into northern Lebanon, where she now shares a single room with 12 other family members.

"At night we roll out these mattresses and I sleep next to my daughter, two daughters-in-law and nine grandchildren," says the 60-year-old, pointing at futons rolled up against the wall.

Human Rights Watch on Friday called for the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate the deadly crackdown on protesters in Syria and to "strongly condemn repression of peaceful protests."

"Syria’s President Bashar Assad needs to hear an unequivocal message from the Human Rights Council that violent suppression of peaceful protests is unacceptable and will have consequences," said Julie de Rivero, Geneva director at Human Rights Watch.