An American official stressed that slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri had “long protected Lebanon’s bank sector from attempts to impose sanctions on it.”

He told the Kuwaiti al-Rai newspaper in remarks published on Thursday that Hariri used to justify his position by informing the Americans that “Lebanon’s stability depends on its bank sector that survived the long years of the Lebanese civil war.”

Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati is reportedly preparing two draft cabinet line-ups – one includes March 14 ministers along with the Hizbullah-led alliance and the other is only made up of March 8 figures.

Miqati visited President Michel Suleiman on Tuesday night and informed him about his consultations with the different parties on the formation of the cabinet.

Leaked U.S. embassy cables carry U.S. suspicions that Hizbullah raised funds and maintained contacts among Chile's small community of Islamic fundamentalists.

An unclassified embassy cable dated February 27, 2006, and released Tuesday by WikiLeaks, said a "radical fundamentalist presence" was centered in the northern city of Iquique, and to a lesser degree in Santiago.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hizbullah on Wednesday against any attack, after the group's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah threatened to take over the Galilee in northern Israel.

"Nasrallah declared today that he will conquer the Galilee," said Netanyahu. "I have news for him. He won't."

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Wednesday stressed that should the rival March 14 camp decide to join Najib Miqati's cabinet, it must "act differently" regarding the controversial issues that felled Saad Hariri's government.

In an interview on his movement's mouthpiece OTV, Aoun went on to say: "Should the other camp agree on our plan for solving the controversial issues, we will give them the 'blocking-third'" veto power in cabinet.

The head of a 22-member Hizbullah cell who escaped from an Egyptian prison during the Cairo uprising appeared on Wednesday at a televised rally organized by the party in Dahiyeh, the southern suburb of Beirut.

Mohammed Youssef Mansour, alias Sami Shehab, was lauded as a "freed prisoner" and a "brother in our struggle" as he joined a group of Hizbullah officials at a gathering to mark the group's Martyrs' Day, television images showed.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon presiding judge Antonio Cassese announced on Wednesday that the court will be totally impartial and not subject to interference.

He made the announcement at a hearing as the court issued a 152-page ruling on the law that will apply during a future trial, particularly with regard to terrorism.

Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday called on his fighters to stand ready to occupy the Galilee area in northern Israel should another war "be imposed on Lebanon."

"I call on the mujahedin of the Islamic Resistance to stand ready to take over the Galilee should a war be imposed on Lebanon," Nasrallah addressed via video link a rally organized by Hizbullah in Beirut's southern suburb to commemorate the group's Martyrs' Day.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Wednesday urged Lebanon's next cabinet to remain committed to the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon probing the 2005 assassination of ex-prime minister Rafik Hariri.

"I encouraged them to guarantee Lebanon's commitment to abide with ... its international obligations," said Ashton after talks with President Michel Suleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri and prime minister designate Najib Miqati.

The March 14 general-secretariat said Wednesday that the new opposition’s main task was to protect public and private lives from Hizbullah’s weapons.

Following its weekly meeting, the general-secretariat stressed it would go ahead with its decisions to confront through democratic means the “coup” that was carried out by the March 8 forces when they toppled Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri’s government and nominated Najib Miqati as prime minister-designate.