President Michel Aoun has reportedly made a number of reservations about a government formula presented by PM-designate Saad Hariri, mainly a suggestion to allocate the justice ministerial portfolio to the Lebanese Forces Movement, al-Akhbar daily reported Thursday.

A bomb explosion rocked the Palestinian refugee camp of Mieh Mieh in the southern city of Sidon shortly after midnight, the National News Agency reported on Thursday.

Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday called on “everyone” to offer concessions to facilitate the stalled formation of the new government, as he issued an austere warning over the country's economic situation.

“Any party cannot achieve what it wants in the government formation process and everyone, without exception, must offer concessions for the sake of the country in order to overcome this crisis,” Berri was quoted as saying during his weekly Ain el-Tineh meeting with lawmakers.

The Lebanese Forces has warned that the government formation process has reached a “dead end,” cautioning that the country might descend “from a government crisis to a national crisis.”

“Things have reached a dead end and it is not right to conceal the truth from the people: no government is looming in the horizon and vacuum will reign indefinitely, because someone is betting on something that we do not know,” LF sources told An Nahar newspaper in remarks published Wednesday.

The international community has warned Lebanon that planned aid could go to other countries should the government formation impasse continue, media reports said.

“Senior diplomatic officials have told some (Lebanese) officials over the phone that the European Union and the United States, and even the United Nations, are dismayed by the current Lebanese situation and that if the government deadlock continues, aid earmarked for Lebanon could go to other countries,” al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The draft Cabinet line-up that Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri presented to President Michel Aoun has surfaced in media reports although the premier has stressed its confidentiality.

Al-Akhbar newspaper reported Wednesday that Hariri's format gives the Lebanese Forces the education, justice, agriculture and culture ministerial portfolios. The LF had insisted on getting five ministerial seats including a so-called sovereign portfolio.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri has reiterated that he will not back down from the mission of forming a new government.

“Am I crazy to offer them the gift of stepping down?” Hariri told one of al-Mustaqbal's caretaker ministers during the Movement's high-level meeting on Tuesday, al-Akhbar daily reported Wednesday.

Israeli jets flying high over Lebanon struck at targets inside Syria on Tuesday, Syrian state media reported, in a rare daytime raid that killed at least one person.

Syria's SANA state news agency said the country's air defenses shot down five missiles, adding that one person was killed and 12 others were wounded.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri on Tuesday defended the draft Cabinet line-up he presented Monday to President Michel Aoun as “convincing,” while stressing that his jurisdiction as PM-designate is “clear.”

Reiterating that the format entails “no victors or losers,” Hariri called for “looking at the full half of the cup.”

The Strong Lebanon parliamentary bloc on Tuesday criticized a draft Cabinet line-up presented by Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri on Monday, warning of a perceived attempt to "encroach" on President Michel Aoun's powers and "bypass the results of the parliamentary elections."

“We reject the monopolization of confessional representation and we see an attempt to bypass and disrespect the results of the parliamentary elections,” MP Ibrahim Kanaan said after the bloc's weekly meeting.