Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan, who has proposed a draft law on the transportation allowance, rejected an alleged deal to garner a parliamentary support for his suggestion in return for the legalization of spending made above 2005 levels.

In remarks to An Nahar daily published Thursday, Kanaan said: “I don’t think that any official or lawmaker can tolerate the offense of such a settlement that hits sound governmental effort allowing cabinet spending and targets accountability and transparency.”

The resignation of Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas paved way for officials to avert a three-week cabinet crisis that had threatened the collapse of the government as the names of his successor were being speculated on Thursday.

“No candidate has been chosen yet, but it might happen in the upcoming few hours,” Free Patriotic Movement sources told An Nahar newspaper.

The official resignation of Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas on Wednesday was accompanied by signs of a political settlement reached between the top leaders that would witness a March 14 support for a draft law on the transportation allowance in return for a drop of March 8 majority demands to see records of billions of dollars spent by the governments of former Premiers Fouad Saniora and Saad Hariri.

President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati accepted the resignation of Nahhas who had been refusing to sign a transportation allowance decree linked with a wage hike made by the cabinet.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati formally received from the “Change and Reform” bloc the resignation of Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas.

Miqati’s media office stated that “After consultations between the Prime Minister and the President, the resignation of Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas has been accepted.”

The United Nations on Wednesday extended the mandate of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The tribunal faces strong opposition from Hizbullah, but in announcing the three-year extension of the inquiry, U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon said he was determined to "send a message that impunity will not be tolerated.”

French Ambassador Denis Pietton hoped on Wednesday that the cabinet would resume its functions in implementing reforms after Premier Najib Miqati suspended the government sessions over his accusations that ministers loyal to Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun were being unproductive.

“After what I’ve heard from Aoun, I hope that the government would resume its work and activities in implementing reform,” Pietton said after meeting with the FPM chief in Rabieh.

The March 14 General Secretariat noted on Wednesday that last week’s February 14 ceremony commemorating the seventh anniversary of the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri marked an important development in the March 14 forces’ mission to assert Lebanon’s independence and sovereignty.

It called in a statement after its weekly meeting for devising a new “unified project that under the name of Lebanon’s salvation.”

Israel's Ambassador to the U.N., Ron Prosor, has warned the Security Council that Hizbullah’s alleged powerbase in western Africa is growing, the Israeli Ynetnews website reported Wednesday.

"Israel is particularly concerned over Hizbullah's use of the area as a base of terror operations,” the site quoted Prosor as saying. “Criminal initiatives bolster Hizbullah's efforts to create sleeper-cells in the area.”

A speeding car killed a priest on Wednesday morning as he was crossing the highway in Dbayeh, north of Beirut, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said the Red Cross collected the body parts strewn around the crash site and on both sides of the highway. The agency identified the priest as Father Youssef al-Khoury.

Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas’ resignation came as a surprise to Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun, who was hoping that he would sign the decision taken by the cabinet over the transportation allowance decree.

Nahhas “refuses the compromises” made by Aoun’s Change and Reform parliamentary bloc, his sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper on Wednesday.