Speaker Nabih Berri stated that the government formation in Lebanon is moving at “turtle pace”, noting however that Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati’s recent statements from Baabda are a positive sign that it will be established soon.

He told the daily An Nahar in remarks published on Sunday: “We hope the new government will live up to the Lebanese people’s expectations.”

An Middle East Airlines flight arrived from Abidjan at Beirut airport at dawn on Friday with 244 Lebanese expatriates onboard, reported the National News Agency on Friday.

Another flight from Iran’s Mahan Air also arrived from Abidjan with 195 passengers and six children onboard.

France’s Ambassador to Lebanon Denis Pietton discussed with Premier-designate Najib Miqati on Wednesday the latest developments on the new government formation process.

“Miqati is concerned about forming a balanced government,” Pietton said, telling reporters after the meeting that the administrative appointments require a “balanced and a widely represented government.”

The thunder of heavy weapons rocked Abidjan once more Tuesday as President Alassane Ouattara struggled to take control of Ivory Coast's commercial capital after capturing his rival Laurent Gbagbo who was placed under house arrest.

U.S. President Barack Obama telephoned Ouattara to congratulate him on taking power and called for justice for the victims of the bloody political crisis.

The Director General of the Foreign Ministry and head of the Foreign Ministry delegation to the Ivory Coast Haithan Joumaa meanwhile told the National News Agency from Accra airport that Abidjan airport was now secure.

He said on Tuesday that air traffic has been returned to normal allowing MEA to set up direct flights to the Ivory Coast capital.

Ivory Coast leader Alassane Ouattara's forces, backed by French and U.N. troops, captured his besieged rival Laurent Gbagbo in Abidjan on Monday at the climax of a deadly months-long crisis.

Gbagbo, who has held power since 2000 and stubbornly refused to admit defeat in November's presidential election, was detained and taken to his rival's temporary headquarters, with his wife Simone and son Michel.

The Lebanese Foreign Ministry delegation, headed by foreign ministry director general Haitham Joumaa, began on Saturday evacuating Lebanese expatriates in the Ivory Coast from Abidjan airport to the airport in Ghana’s capital Accra.

Joumaa informed the National News Agency in a telephone call from Abidjan airport that a Boeing 737 has been rented to transport 200 passengers to Accra over a two-phase operation.

Forces loyal to Ivory's Coast's internationally-recognized president Alassane Ouattara killed or raped hundreds of people and burned villages during a rampage in late March, Human Rights Watch said Saturday.

The rights group revealed new evidence of the summary killings of suspected supporters of strongman Laurent Gbagbo in the far west of the strife-torn country as Ouattara's followers took Gbagbo territory.

Lebanon has set up an air bridge to ferry its citizens out of war-torn Ivory Coast and on to Beirut, the French foreign ministry said Friday, announcing the creation of a crisis coordination cell.

A fleet of medium-sized planes will fly Lebanese citizens from Abidjan airport, which is now controlled by French troops, to neighboring Ghana's capital Accra, where they will be transferred to Lebanese airliners.

U.N. investigators have found more than 100 bodies in the past 24 hours in western Ivory Coast in what appeared to have been ethnically driven killings, the U.N. human rights office said Friday.

"The human rights team investigating... in west Cote d'Ivoire found more than 100 bodies in the past 24 hours in three locations," said Rupert Colville, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.