The foreign ministry has sent a letter to the Syrian embassy in Beirut upon the request of President Michel Suleiman, the state-run National News Agency reported Wednesday.

While NNA did not specify the nature of the letter sent on Monday, media reports said it included the recent request made by Suleiman to hand the ministry copies of security reports on the latest Syrian airstrikes on Lebanese territories.

President Michel Suleiman called on Turkey to exert more pressure to release the abducted Lebanese in the Syrian town of Aazaa.

Suleiman stressed during his meeting on Wednesday with the Turkish Transportation Minister Binali Yildirim at the Presidential Palace in Baabda that such pressure helps enhance relations between Lebanon and Turkey.

Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin praised on Wednesday Lebanese officials for seeking to find common ground over disputed matters, expressing optimism over the situation in the country.

“This is a good start,” Zasypkin told reporters after holding talks with caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour at the Bustros Palace.

The families of nine Lebanese pilgrims kidnapped nearly a year ago in Syria are stopping Syrian workers in Beirut from going to work for the fourth day in a row, in a bid to put pressure on those holding their relatives.

On Wednesday, an Agence France Presse reporter saw around a dozen relatives, men and women, stop cars at an intersection in an industrial area on the outskirts of the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Conflicting reports emerged on Wednesday over the release of taxi driver Joseph Issa al-Khawli, who was kidnapped last week, after the payment a sum of money to the abductors.

State-run National News Agency reported that the kidnappers of al-Khawli were paid $12,000.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly welcomed on Wednesday President Michel Suleiman's nomination of Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam as a “positive first step” in efforts to form a new government.

She reiterated after holding talks with the president “the United States’ position that the Lebanese people deserve a government that reflects their aspirations and that strengthens Lebanon’s stability, sovereignty, and independence while fulfilling its international commitments.”

Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam reiterated on Wednesday at the end of the consultations with lawmakers in parliament that he still holds onto the formation of a national interest government whose main mission will be to supervise the parliamentary polls.

“The supervision of the elections is a big mission for the new cabinet in addition to several pressing issues that we should confront such as economic, social and security problems,” Salam told reporters in parliament on the second and last day of consultations with MPs on the formation of his government.

A bomb was found overnight in Hay al-Sellom area in Beirut's southern suburbs allegedly signed by Syria's al-Nusra Front rebel group and directed against Hizbullah, media reports said on Wednesday.

Hizbullah members cordoned off the area and prevented security forces and a military expert from reaching the scene.

Parliament agreed on Wednesday to suspend the deadline for submitting nominations for the parliamentary elections.

It agreed to suspend the deadline to May 19.

Around 600 Lebanese citizens signed a petition that rejects the adoption of the so-called Orthodox Gathering draft-law during the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Lawmakers, Ministers, businessmen, journalists, academicians and activists signed the petition that will be handed over to President Michel Suleiman and the parliament.