President Michel Suleiman and the independent MPs of the March 14 opposition alliance closed the chapter of the dispute on the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal, Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat said.

In remarks to As Safir daily published Thursday, Jumblat praised Suleiman and the independent Christian lawmakers for obstructing the “suicidal proposal” which calls for a single district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional representation system.

Lebanese leaders must adhere to their declared neutrality on the Syrian civil war amid warnings that the fighting could spill over the border, U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon warned Wednesday.

"The reported involvement of certain Lebanese elements in the conflict in Syria is contrary to Lebanon's policy of disassociation," Ban said in a report to the U.N. Security Council on the implementation of resolution 1701.

The rebel Free Syrian Army stated on Wednesday that it is not seeking to start a military confrontation with Hizbullah on the Lebanese border, stressing however, that it will respond to any attack by the party.

"I have personally asked President Michel Suleiman to intervene and prevent Hizbullah from bombing our locations,” FSA chief of staff General Selim Idriss revealed during an interview on Future television.

The army arrested on Wednesday an Egyptian national in Beirut's Shiyyah neighborhood on charges of spying for Israel.

"The man owns Gina Cell mobile phone store in Shiyyah,” al-Jadeed television detailed.

Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday called for endorsing an electoral law based on proportional representation and a single electoral district, warning that some parties are seeking sectarian strife between Sunnis and Shiites in Lebanon.

“There is an alternative that addresses all the reservations voiced over the Orthodox Gathering law and we will work in a very serious manner for this alternative choice, although the Orthodox law will remain on the table,” said Nasrallah in a televised address he made to comment on the latest developments.

Iraq's prime minister warned Wednesday that a victory for Syria's rebels will spark sectarian wars in Lebanon and Iraq and will create a new haven for al-Qaida that would destabilize the region.

The comments by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in an interview with The Associated Press marked one of his strongest warnings yet about the turmoil that toppling Syrian President Bashar Assad could create in the Middle East.

The March 14 General Secretariat accused the cabinet on Wednesday of “disassociating itself from the people and the workers' interests”, urging President Michel Suleiman to deploy army forces on the border with Syria.

"The internal security crises and the situation on the border will transform Lebanon into a failed state,” the secretariat said in a released statement after its weekly meeting.

A man identified as Sayed Karam was killed on Wednesday in an avalanche in the Cedar's Qornet al-Sawda region in the north, which also left three other people wounded.

The Civil Defense Forces rescued Joseph al-Batoulani, Mohsen Iskandar and Andre Nadira and transferred them to the north's hospitals for treatment.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati stated on Wednesday that the Syndicate Coordination Committee's movements are “futile and useless”, urging the protesters to refrain from escalation as “it will not lead anywhere”.

"No one is against the new wage scale,” Miqati expressed during Wednesday's cabinet session, adding that he had explained his point of view to the SCC in this regard.

Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday hinted that he might withdraw the hybrid draft electoral law he has proposed, as a Progressive Socialist Party delegation that visited him stressed that the parliament speaker will not allow any step that harms coexistence among religious communities in the country.

“It is known that the joint (parliamentary) committees had set a final 15-day deadline for consensus over the electoral law, and if no consensus is reached, it will immediately start discussing the Orthodox Gathering electoral law,” Berri said during his weekly meeting with MPs.