Hizbullah has advised Premier-designate Najib Miqati to “exercise more patience” and promised him to exert all efforts to help achieve common grounds over Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun’s demands of shares in the new cabinet, high-ranking political sources told An Nahar daily on Monday.

The sources also denied reports that Miqati had agreed to give 10 portfolios to Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc, another 10 to Hizbullah, Amal and some other March 8 parties and finally the last 10 ministers for President Michel Suleiman, the premier-designate and National Struggle Front leader MP Walid Jumblat.

Speaker Nabih Berri said that Premier-designate Najib Miqati is continuing his efforts to form the new government, in remarks to An-Nahar and As-Safir newspapers.

“There’s no excuse to delay the government formation,” Berri said, rejecting to talk about so-called sovereign portfolios and non-sovereign portfolios.

Al-Qaida operatives and Hizbullah members are in Brazil planning attacks, raising money and recruiting followers, a leading Brazilian news magazine reported over the weekend.

Veja magazine said that at least 20 people affiliated with the al-Qaida terrorist network as well as Hizbullah and Hamas have been hiding out in the south American country.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates approved a freeze on weapon shipments to the Lebanese army following the collapse of Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri’s government in January, said The Wall Street Journal on Monday.

The decision underlines growing concerns about Hizbullah's role after the party and its allies named Najib Miqati as premier-designate.

Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi on Sunday announced the end of a two-day mutiny by inmates demanding an amnesty and better conditions in Lebanon's notorious main prison of Roumieh.

Rifi reassured "the Lebanese and the prisoners that the mutiny ended permanently and peacefully."

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi held talks on Sunday with Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Naim Hassan who congratulated him on his election as patriarch.

Al-Rahi voiced a hope after the meeting that “God will aid and empower politicians in Lebanon in forming the new government.”

Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati informed on Saturday the Higher Islamic Council that he is facing obstacles in the government formation process, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

He added that he had told it that “I have taken it upon myself to serve my country and its stability.”

Relatives of Lebanese expatriates stranded in civil war-torn Ivory Coast staged a sit-in Sunday in front of Lebanon's foreign ministry in Beirut, demanding a solution to the humanitarian crisis.

A number of expats who had managed to return to Lebanon also took part in the sit-in.

Internal Security Forces chief Ashraf Rifi revealed that no injuries were reported during Saturday’s protest at Roumieh prison, adding that no one was taken hostage by any of the protestors.

He told An Nahar in remarks published on Sunday: “The inmates have demands and we are working on fulfilling them if they are justified.”

Speaker Nabih Berri condemned criticism directed against the policy that was used in addressing Lebanese expatriates in the Ivory Coast given the dispute between President Laurent Gbagbo and incumbent President Alassane Outtara.

He told An Nahar in remarks published on Sunday: “Lebanon’s decision to stand by Gbagbo was right because tens of thousands of expatriates in Abidjan live in areas that he controls.”