Relations between the French and Lebanese leaderships have been frozen over President Nicolas Sarkozy’s rejection to invite Premier Najib Miqati to Paris as long as his government hasn’t implement its international commitments yet, high-ranking sources in Paris said.

The sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Friday that Lebanon’s international commitments include the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon that is set to try ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s suspected assassins.

Preparations underway for a possible visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Lebanon in 2012 in an attempt to preserve the Christians’ existence in the country and the East, As Safir newspaper reported on Friday.

“The Vatican and the Maronite Patriarchate have a priority at this stage to preserve the existence of Christians” in the East, church sources told the daily.

Public Works Minister Ghazi Aridi has criticized the Free Patriotic Movement for seeking to impose its point of view on the cabinet, warning that the government “isn’t in good shape.”

“We can’t spend our time discussing details,” the Progressive Socialist Party minister said about prolonged disputes on controversial issues. The government is holding sessions twice a week without being able to complete the discussion of its agenda, he added.

A Lebanese delegation will head to Libya on Sunday to meet with National Transitional Council officials after the death of ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi, An Nahar newspaper reported.

The delegation will discuss the latest investigations undertaken by the NTC to unveil the fate of missing Imam Moussa al-Sadr, An Nahar said Friday.

Energy Minister Jebran Bassil stressed that the bickering between the ministers loyal to Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun and Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat confirms that the cabinet is not one-sided.

In remarks to An Nahar daily published Friday, Bassil said the dispute that raged between the two sides during the cabinet session on Wednesday “confirms the government is not one-sided and does not have a single policy.”

Marada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh on Thursday announced his rejection of a possible rise to power by Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood, saying “I cannot accept those who believe that it is permissible to spill my blood.”

In an interview on LBC television, Franjieh revealed that ex-PM Saad Hariri had allegedly told him Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was “totally innocent” of his father’s 2005 assassination and that “the Iranians were behind the assassination” of former premier Rafik Hariri.

Lebanon’s Economic Committees, a grouping of the country’s businessmen and owners of major firms, on Thursday reiterated their rejection of the government’s recent decision to increase wages, describing the step as “illegal” and urging business owners to abstain from implementing the resolution.

The committees threatened to “resort to the Shoura Council to challenge the resolution should the State insist on implementing it,” in a closing statement issued following a meeting at the Beirut International Exhibition and Leisure Center (BIEL).

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri noted on Thursday that the death of former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi marked the end of a dark period in the Libyan people’s lives and the beginning of a new phase of freedom and democracy.

He said in a statement: “Gadhafi’s fate is the inevitable end of all dictators who reject their people’s will for freedom and democracy.”

President Michel Suleiman and PM Najib Miqati arrived at Jeita Grotto on Thursday in support of the national campaign to vote for the cave to become one of the new seven wonders of nature.

They were welcomed by the Minister of Tourism Fady Abboud and the chief of Jeita Municipality Samir Baroud, as well as the head of the Jeita Mayor Association.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon's Trial Chamber has issued a scheduling order, which requests written submissions relating to in absentia proceedings from the Office of the Prosecutor and each of the accused, said the STL in a statement.

“Since the accused have not yet appointed counsel the Trial Chamber has also asked the STL’s Defense Office to file submissions,” it added.