Former prime minister Saad Hariri on Thursday hit back at Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat, describing slain Intelligence Bureau chief Maj. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan as “the martyr of Lebanon” and slamming the Druze leader for refusing to resign from government.

“Walid Jumblat is quoting me as saying that Wissam al-Hasan is the martyr of the Sunni sect. This is untrue and his ally (PM Najib) Miqati is the one who said that. Wissam al-Hasan is the martyr of Lebanon,” said Hariri on the social networking website Twitter during Jumblat's live interview on LBCI television.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Thursday criticized the March 14 forces over the clashes that followed the funeral of slain Intelligence Bureau chief Maj. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan, noting that he will remain in the centrist camp together with President Michel Suleiman and that he would accept any solution that spares the country political vacuum.

“Wissam al-Hasan was the good guardian of the Lebanese state, but it was a major mistake to give Wissam al-Hasan a sectarian color after his assassination. Unfortunately, instead of organizing a decent farewell, the funeral ended with chaos,” said Jumblat in an interview on LBCI television.

A U.S. investigation team arrived in Beirut on Thursday and began gathering evidence at the scene of the bombing that killed Maj. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan, chief of the Intelligence Bureau of the Internal Security Forces, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said.

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation team is at the scene of the crime and has begun collecting evidence," Charbel told Agence France Presse.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat renewed his rejection of political vacuum in Lebanon in the wake of the March 14-led opposition's demands for the resignation of the government and the formation of a national one, reported the daily An Nahar on Wednesday.

He told the daily: “I support the establishment of a new government if the conditions for it are available.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader warned on Monday against forcing the government to “carry more than it can bear” in Lebanon in light of the increased demands for its resignation in the wake of the assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau head Brigadier General Wissam al-Hasan on Friday.

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine: “Insisting on the government's resignation will lead Lebanon to a vacuum and the country into the Syrian regime's trap.”

Former prime minister Saad Hariri on Sunday received phone calls from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, who offered him condolences on the assassination of Maj. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan and his bodyguard Ahmed Suhyouni.

“During the phone calls, discussions also tackled the developments which Lebanon is witnessing after the heinous assassination. (Ex-)Premier Hariri stressed that the Lebanese people are staging a civil, democratic movement to overthrow the government of Premier Najib Miqati, adding that March 14 forces will boycott the government until it falls, as it is the product of the Syrian-Iranian axis and is working to achieve the interests and influence of this axis at the expense of the interests and security of Lebanon and its people,” Hariri's office said in a statement.

Intensive contacts were held overnight Friday-Saturday between Prime Minister Najib Miqati and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat and his ministers, during which Jumblat rejected Miqati's suggestion that he would submit his resignation, official sources said.

“Jumblat rejected Miqati's resignation out of fear of a governmental vacuum and the inability of any caretaker cabinet to control security should the situations deteriorate,” sources close to the premiership told the pan-Arab al-Hayat newspaper in remarks published Sunday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Friday accused Syrian President Bashar Assad of ordering the assassination of Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan, chief of the Intelligence Bureau of the Internal Security Forces, warning that “we must not accuse anyone in Lebanon because we would be implementing what Bashar wants."

 "I openly accuse Bashar Assad and his regime of killing Wissam al-Hasan," Jumblat said.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea indirectly admitted that the March 14 forces had committed a mistake by agreeing to maintaining Speaker Nabih Berri in his position after the camp won a majority in the 2009 parliamentary elections, reported al-Akhbar newspaper on Thursday.

He told the daily: “With all due respect to Berri, we can no longer tolerate him as parliament speaker. We must form a harmonious government just as the other camp did.”

The March 14 camp and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat are expected to resume contacts in a hope to reach an agreement over a proposal to adopt small-sized electoral districts during the 2013 parliamentary elections, reported An Nahar daily on Wednesday.

Sources from the camp told the daily that even though the MP is still opposed to the small-sized districts, he is open to dialogue that could introduce amendments to the electoral draft law proposed by the opposition.