The dispute over the legality of holding a parliamentary session in the presence of a caretaker government has persisted amid claims that the Mustaqbal bloc and its March 14 allies may take part in it exchange for certain demands linked to the formation of a new cabinet, reported As Safir newspaper Saturday.

Widely informed sources told the daily that the bloc is also seeking to propose extending the term of retired Internal Security Forces chief Ashraf Rifi in exchange of attending an extraordinary parliament session.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat described on Saturday the current political situation as “unsound,” stressing that the only way to resolve disputes is by dialogue.

Sources close to Jumblat expressed the Druze leader's annoyance that a certain party decided to boycott the recent parliamentary session that Speaker Nabih Berri called for, in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

Islamist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir, on the run since the Abra battle, has likely appeared in an audio and not a video recording due to the fact that he had to change his physical appearance in order to be able to flee the military crackdown, reports said on Friday.

LBCI television said Asir's wife Amal and some of the clerics relatives and close aides in Sidon have confirmed the authenticity of the audio message.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas paid a rare visit on Friday to a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, placing a wreath at the cemetery in the Shatila camp in the capital Beirut.

A small crowd gathered ahead of his brief visit to welcome him at the Martyrs Cemetery on the outskirts of the camp, one of 12 housing Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

A delegation from the Maronite patriarchate that toured Sidon on Friday said exremists are only a "small minority" and that they pose a threat to both Christians and Muslims, as former premier Fouad Saniora lauded the Maronite bishops' latest statement that stressed the importance of the army's role in protecting all the Lebanese.

"We met with the governor, the officials, the army and the religious leaders and we tell Sidon that what happened was something that the city did not want and it was not part of its spirit or of the Sidon we know," Bishop Boulos Sayyah, who was accompanied by two bishops, said after meeting with the city's dignitaries.

Hundreds of men and women supporting Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir marched from Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque after Friday prayers, heading to al-Karameh roundabout in the southern city of Sidon.

The protestors assaulted TV crews in Abra, smashing the windows of their cars and breaking their cameras during the march.

Caretaker Energy Minister Jebran Bassil issued a warning on Friday that the army and the resistance have the ability to protect Lebanon's oil reserves from Israel after he accused it of digging a well 4 kilometers from Lebanese offshore reserves.

During a press conference he held at the ministry, Bassil said: “Israel now has the ability to reach Lebanon's oil reserves.”

First Military Investigation Judge Riyad Abu Ghida received on Friday the case of the detained suspects in Abra clashes a day after State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr charged 27 people, 10 of them in absentia.

According to the state-run National News Agency, Abu Ghida will interrogate the suspects on Monday over the deadly clashes with the Lebanese army in the southern town of Abra near the city of Sidon.

Mohammed al-Tufayli, a Lebanese man kidnapped in the eastern city of Baalbek last week, has been released in a swap that involved eight Syrians abducted by his family, Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) reported Friday.

VDL said that the exchange took place on Thursday night. It did not give further details.

Attempts by President Michel Suleiman to bring viewpoints closer between Speaker Nabih Berri and Caretaker Premier Najib Miqati on a controversial parliamentary session have failed, media reports said Friday.

Local dailies quoted informed sources as saying that a meeting held between Suleiman, Berri and Miqati at Baabda palace on Wednesday night focused on the constitutionality of the session that the speaker has called for.