Speaker Nabih Berri held talks on Monday with Prime Minister Najib Miqati as part of efforts to resolve the government crisis, reported the National News Agency.

Miqati said after the half-hour meeting: “If we are certain that cabinet will be productive, then we will resume cabinet sessions."

Prime Minister Najib Miqati is scheduled to head to France on Friday, but he seeking to avoid bringing a ministerial delegation along with him, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Monday.

Ministerial sources explained that the premier’s decision is linked to Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour’s insistence on attending Miqati’s meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

France will not be subject to intimidation or blackmail regarding its troops in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Monday.

French sources told the daily: “France is committed to UNIFIL and the implementation of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701.”

Special Tribunal for Lebanon spokesman Marten Youssef expected the trials in absentia to kick off at the end of 2012, according to al-Liwaa newspaper on Monday.

Youssef revealed that the date will be set in April by Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen, urging the four suspects to appear before the court.

Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffery Feltman on Monday offered his condolences to the family of late ex-MP Nassib Lahoud, who passed away on Thursday after a long battle with illness.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly accompanied Feltman in his visit to the house of the late Lebanese politician in Baabdat, Northern Metn.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun denied that he was obstructing government activity, accusing Prime Minister Najib Miqati of abusing his power when he decided to suspend cabinet sessions.

The MP told As Safir newspaper in remarks published on Monday: “The president and prime minister are taking turns in confronting me … we will not be blackmailed or intimidated … and I will topple the government at the appropriate time.”

President Michel Suleiman expressed optimism on Monday that the cabinet members will be able to resolve the dispute among each other soon.

“The rift between the cabinet members is on minor issues,” Suleiman told As Safir Newspaper.

Firefighters managed to extinguish a huge fire that erupted in an aluminum factory in Zouk Mosbeh on Monday.

The National News Agency said that the fire erupted at 6:30 am in an aluminum factory for Paul Mekhashen.

An Energa-type rifle-launched grenade was fired on Sunday at an area located between the rival Tripoli neighborhoods of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh, state-run National News Agency reported.

Only minutes later unidentified assailants tossed a hand grenade at the stream of the nearby Abu Ali River, NNA said.

Turkey on Sunday criticized the Lebanese government, saying it has not voiced “a single word” to condemn the Syrian regime’s deadly crackdown on dissent.

“Has Lebanon voiced a single word to express its solidarity with our Muslim brothers who are being slaughtered? No, only Turkey has raised its voice,” Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said.