Sources monitoring the contacts to form a new government stated that the efforts to ease the demands over the cabinet are still delaying its formation, adding however that caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud’s announcement that he does not seek to be reappointed as minister will help restore dialogue among the disputed sides.

They told the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat in remarks published on Monday that Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun should be receptive of President Michel Suleiman’s refusal to enter in a dispute with him regarding the former’s insistence on acquiring the Interior Ministry portfolio.

Laborers in Lebanon celebrated Labor Day on Sunday through syndicate activity and statements warning of an escalation in their movement should their demands on living conditions continue to be unmet.

President Michel Suleiman congratulated them on the occasion, praising their “efforts and sacrifices for the sake of the nation.”

President Michel Suleiman’s visitors have stated that the concerned sides in the government formation process “don’t have a real initiative to reach a solution” to the governmental vacuum.

The daily An Nahar reported them as saying that the salvation government proposed by Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel “needs a Syrian green light, which is currently unavailable.”

Security sources in southern Lebanon reported that Israeli soldiers have set up surveillance cameras on the dividing fence between the villages of Ghajar and al-Abbassieh, said the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat Sunday.

Meanwhile, a number of other troops performed maintenance operations at the dividing fence at the border town of al-Adaisseh.

The number of Syrians seeking refuge in the Wadi Khaled region in Lebanon from the unrest in their country has diminished after the redeployment of Syrian border troops in the area adjacent to Lebanon, reported the daily An Nahar Sunday.

Hundreds of Syrian families flooded into the al-Buqayaa area last week following violence against anti-regime protestors in Syria.

An internal security forces patrol was intercepted on Sunday as it was heading to the town of Aitet in the Tyre area in order to thwart a construction violation, reported the National News Agency on Sunday.

It said that a Renault Rapid car, without a license plate and with tinted windows, followed by 20 vehicles intercepted the patrol.

Caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud announced on Saturday that he had informed President Michel Suleiman three months ago of his intention not to be reappointed as a minister.

He added: “I will not allow myself to stand as an obstacle in the government formation process as the media has been lately trying to demonstrate.”

Unrest in Syria could spread to neighboring Lebanon at any moment in light of charges by Damascus that the March 14 forces are backing anti-regime protesters, analysts say.

"Merely stating that Lebanese parties are interfering in Syrian affairs is equivalent to threatening to destabilize Lebanon, irrespective of whether charges of funding and arming the protesters are accurate," said Ghassan el-Ezzi, professor of political science at the Lebanese University.

A hand grenade shook the Boulevard area of the northern port city of Tripoli at dawn Saturday, causing no material damage, the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA said that the grenade was tossed by unknown assailants near al-Baba building at 2:00 am. The blast did not cause any injuries or material damage, it added.

President Michel Suleiman reportedly is still holding onto the interior ministry portfolio as part of his share in the new government but could agree that a personality other than Ziad Baroud heads the ministry, media reports said Saturday.

An Nahar daily said that Suleiman won’t give up the portfolio “at all” but might not hold onto Baroud who headed the ministry in Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri’s cabinet.