Austria said Saturday it could send peacekeeping troops to Lebanon by the end of the year, as part of the UNIFIL mission here, following a request by New York.

"The (Austrian) army has built up expertise and experience in the region. A second pillar in the Middle East, on top of the Golan mission, is definitely conceivable," Defense Minister Norbert Darabos said in a statement.

Tawhid movement chief Wiam Wahhab urged President Michel Suleiman on Saturday to instruct involved ministries to resolve the extended U.S. decision to freeze his assets.

On Thursday, U.S. President Barack Obama extended a freeze of assets on persons, including Wahhab, threatening stability in Lebanon, targeting those seeking "to undermine Lebanon's legitimate and democratically elected government."

The Lebanese cabinet should deal responsibly with the indictment issued in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s murder case or else the country will witness a crisis in its ties with the international community, al-Mustaqbal bloc MPs warned on Saturday.

“In short, we urge the government to act responsibly towards a tribunal decision that received repeated Lebanese consensus at the national dialogue and in previous policy statements,” MP Nohad al-Mashnouq told An Nahar newspaper.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat and Phalange party chief Amin Gemayel have met over dinner in Bikfaya on Thursday night, An Nahar newspaper said.

The dinner banquet held for Jumblat came after Gemayel attended a similar dinner at Jumblat’s residence.

President Michel Suleiman is waiting for the return of opposition leader and former Premier Saad Hariri from France to discuss with him his invitation for all-party talks at Baabda palace, presidential sources told al-Joumhouria daily Saturday.

The sources said that Suleiman’s only “obsession” is to gather the bickering politicians at the dialogue table to consolidate the country against the “regional storm blowing on Lebanon.”

Sources close to Hizbullah have accused the Special Tribunal for Lebanon of seeking to ignite the situation in Lebanon and did not rule out the release of new names in the indictment in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s murder case to create instability in the country.

The sources told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat that Pre-trial judge Daniel Fransen ordered confidentiality around the charges against Salim Ayyash, 47, Mustafa Badreddine, 50, Hussein Oneissi, 37 and Assad Sabra, 34, be dropped so that he can serve the United States.

Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon discussed the impasse in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and the situation in the West Bank and Gaza, in Lebanon and the region, said a U.N. spokesman.

"The secretary general urged an early resumption of meaningful Israeli-Palestinian negotiations," Spokesman Martin Nesirky said Friday.

Energy and Water Minister Jebran Bassil on Friday hit back at Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, without naming him, over remarks made by the latter earlier in the day on the issue of Lebanon’s maritime resources.

“Who allowed him (Geagea) to renounce our rights and jeopardize Lebanon’s borders, sovereignty and resources?” Bassil asked rhetorically.

Special Tribunal for Lebanon Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen’s decision to lift the confidentiality on the full names and aliases, biographical information, photographs and charges against the individuals named in the indictment “has been taken to increase the likelihood of apprehending the accused in case any of them is seen by the public,” STL Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare said Friday, hours after Fransen’s ruling was announced.

“The Prosecutor reiterates that the named individuals are innocent until the Tribunal has reached a final verdict after the completion of the trial and any appeals,” the Office of the Prosecutor said in a statement.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun has stressed during a ceremony to commemorate the army martyrs that “we will pursue the path of struggle in order to build the country that they dreamed of and were martyred for its sake.”

In a ceremony organized by the FPM in Northern Metn’s Dbaye district, Aoun added: “We had fought along their side not to meet death, but rather to live freely on this land, and we had always known that some of us would sacrifice to salvage the others.”