Labor Minister Sejaan Qazzi held Education Minister Elias Bou Saab responsible for the cabinet's failure to approve the decree on the Lebanese University and accused him of harming the consensus agreement reached among its members.

“I hold Minister Bou Saab responsible for the failure. He is also harming the concept of consensus in the cabinet,” Qazzi told several local dailies published on Friday.

The seat of the Maronite Patriarchate totally rejects holding the parliamentary elections amid a vacuum at Baabda Palace, Bkirki officials have said.

The officials, who were not identified, told al-Joumhouria daily published on Thursday that Bkirki “rejects in principal that citizens head to the polls at a time when MPs don't elect a president.”

Lebanon's presidential crisis has already spilled over into parliament, which has failed to hold legislative sessions, but is now threatening to extend its term for a second time despite Speaker Nabih Berri's rejection.

Berri said in remarks published in several newspapers on Wednesday that the parliamentary polls should be held based on the current law if lawmakers failed to agree on a new draft-law.

Speaker Nabih Berri has stressed that he would call for a parliamentary session to elect a new head of state as soon as the rival parties strike a deal to resolve the deadlock, saying Lebanon is currently adopting a “wait-and-see” approach.

Berri told officials who visited him over the weekend that he would set a date for a session the minute there is an agreement among the different parliamentary blocs.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea has accused his rival Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun of deceiving the public and creating a media stir to win the backing of the rival Lebanese parties for the country's top Christian post.

“Aoun hasn't proposed a serious initiative. He made a media stir to pressure the Lebanese parties into electing him a president,” Geagea told al-Joumhouria daily in an interview published on Friday.

Lawmakers failed in the eighth consecutive round on Wednesday to elect a new head of state, widening the country's political crisis and threatening the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Speaker Nabih Berri set a new session for July 23 after the legislative session on the election of a president was marred by lack of quorum caused by a large number of boycotting MPs.

The deteriorating security situation in Lebanon is expected to impose itself on a cabinet session that was held on Thursday after three suicide bombings rocked areas across the country in less than a week.

The cabinet is set to discuss a mechanism on the government's functions in the absence of a president.

The U.S. and France are expected to hold talks on the political crisis in Lebanon this week as diplomats said efforts will be exerted to convince Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun to nominate a consensual presidential candidate.

An Nahar daily said Tuesday that French Ambassador to Lebanon Patrice Paoli was summoned to Paris to set the stage for the consultations between Washington and Paris on the presidential elections deadlock.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea said on Wednesday that his political arch-foe Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun isn't responsible for head of al-Mustaqbal Movement Saad Hariri's security, stressing that staging the parliamentary elections amid presidential vacuum is a dangerous precedent.

“It is early to discuss the legislative polls... But if we carry out the elections without a head of state then we will return to the same crisis,” Geagea told reporters at Maarab after lawmakers failed for the seventh time to elect a new president.

Lawmakers failed on Wednesday for the seventh time to elect a new president as differences between the rival parties seemed not to be abating.

Speaker Nabih Berri postponed the session to July 2 to fill the seat of the country's top Christian post at Baabda Palace.