U.S. Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen held talks on Tuesday with Prime Minister Najib Miqati, Central Bank Governor Riyad Salameh, and a number of representatives from the Lebanese banking sector, announced the U.S. Embassy in a statement.

“In his meetings, Cohen reiterated the U.S. view that it is important to ensure that the current instability in Syria does not undermine the Lebanese financial sector,” it said.

A vacant building abutting a structure that collapsed in the coastal town of Tabarja, north of Beirut almost two weeks ago tumbled down on Tuesday.

The National News Agency said the building that lies near the Tabarja Beach complex collapsed at 10:55 am, causing no casualties.

Russia said Tuesday it was willing to support either a U.N. Security Council statement or a resolution on peace envoy Kofi Annan's mission to Syria as long as it contained no ultimatums.

"We are ready to back the mission of U.N. and Arab League representative Kofi Annan and the proposals to the government and opposition to Syria," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters after holding talks with his Lebanese counterpart Adnan Mansour.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has said that Hizbullah plans to continue attacks on Jewish targets abroad, the Israeli Jerusalem Post daily reported.

“Although recent attempted attacks have failed, Hizbullah is likely to continue the attempts,” the newspaper quoted him as saying on Monday.

A Lebanese man with alleged links to Hizbullah arrested in Thailand will appear in court Wednesday on charges of breaking weapons control laws, a senior prosecutor said.

Atris Hussein, who is also believed to have a Swedish passport, was arrested in Bangkok in January and police later found a large amount of chemicals that could be used to make a bomb at an address he rented.

The Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch has arrested six people on suspicion of collaborating with Israel, As Safir newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The daily said one of the suspects is a former member of the South Lebanon Army militia and hails from the southern village of Kfarkila.

Head of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s defense office Francois Roux arrived in Beirut overnight Monday and swiftly held closed-door meetings with officials.

Al-Joumhouria newspaper reported Tuesday that Roux will seek to “urge the Lebanese to take part in the tribunal’s work to guarantee the rights of the victims of the attacks, the accused and those who were harmed.”

A meeting headed by Prime Minister Najib Miqati at the Grand Serail for the ministerial committee tasked with finding a solution to Lebanon's prolonged electricity crisis failed to reach a decisive decision concerning the leasing of power-generating ships, local newspapers reported on Tuesday.

The meeting revealed the sharp differences between Miqati and Energy Minister Jebran Bassil on the two offers by a Turkish and an American company that won the tenders.

Bishop Samir Mazloum has denied that a conference of Maronite MPs that was set to be held in Bkirki next month was postponed to avoid a meeting between Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea.

In remarks to Akhbar Alyawm news agency on Monday, Mazloum stressed that the April 3 meeting was postponed after the committee tasked with drafting a law on the parliamentary elections failed to complete its mission.

The cabinet is not likely to approve a draft-law on extra-budgetary spending in 2006-2010 this week after a ministerial committee tasked with studying the issue failed to agree on the plan proposed by Finance Minister Mohammed Safadi.

The committee met under Premier Najib Miqati at the Grand Serail on Monday. But its members were incapable of overcoming their differences on the details of the spending made by the governments of ex-Premiers Fouad Saniora and Saad Hariri.