Speaker Nabih Berri said that he was surprised by the “fabricated” campaign against him, denying that he was after personal gains by insisting on holding a parliamentary session on Wednesday, As Safir reported on Tuesday.

He hinted that the dispute between the March 8 and 14 forces over the parliamentary session reflects the mentality of the “Emirate” that al-Mustaqbal movement officials have, which endangers the future of the democratic system and its institutions in Lebanon.

Caretaker Energy Minister Jebran Bassil stressed that the Change and Reform bloc wants a confirmation from Premier-designate Najib Miqati that a deal on the cabinet makeup was final before giving him a list of names of its candidates for the new cabinet.

Bassil, who is Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun’s son-in-law, told An Nahar daily published Tuesday that the bloc “is waiting for the final confirmation of the agreement reached” between the different parties.

A major hurdle preventing the formation of the new cabinet began surfacing this week after Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun insisted that the candidate for the second Maronite minister, part of President Michel Suleiman’s share, should not be from Jbeil and Kesrouan.

Beirut newspapers quoted informed sources as saying on Tuesday that for election reasons, Aoun is refusing that the sixth Maronite minister in the cabinet be from Jbeil and Kesrouan for fears that Suleiman would undercut the FPM chief’s popular base in the two regions in the parliamentary elections in 2013.

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun have held talks in an attempt to end the government impasse, al-Liwaa daily reported Tuesday.

According to the newspaper, Nasrallah intentionally did not address local issues during the opening session of an intellectual conference on Iran’s Supreme Leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei in Beirut on Monday.

The March 8 leadership has expressed fear that the U.S. would impose sanctions on Lebanese officials if the new cabinet did not abide by U.S. conditions, al-Liwaa daily reported Tuesday.

The newspaper quoted informed sources as saying that the U.S. continues to veto an attempt to put the justice ministry within the share of Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun in the government.

A Canadian court ruled Monday that a Canadian-Lebanese national accused of a 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue that killed four people can be extradited to France, but warned the French government's case was "weak."

French prosecutors want Hassan Diab to face charges of murder, attempted murder and willful destruction of property, for the first fatal attack against the French Jewish community since the Nazi occupation in World War II.

Seven people were killed and several others wounded Monday evening in an explosion in a fuel oil depot at a gas station on the outskirts of the Ashrafieh neighborhood of Fiat Bridge, state-run National News Agency reported.

The bodies of five victims were moved to Hotel Dieu Hospital, while two other bodies were moved to Rizk Hospital, according to NNA.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Monday stressed that there will be no “new shift” in his political alliances, in response to Tuesday’s remarks by Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun, who said he had “heard that MP Jumblat has started to shift ground.”

“I have settled my choices and there will be no new shift in my political course,” Jumblat said in an interview with MTV.

Civil defense forces intervened to extinguish a huge fire that erupted at the Lebanese-German University in Sahel Alma, the National News Agency reported on Monday.

The fire that broke out at LGU was caused by an electrical friction in one of the cars that was parked in the university’s garage, NNA said.

Dozens of Palestinian youths took to the streets of two refugee camps in southern Lebanon on Monday to denounce the weekend killing of protesters along the Israeli border with Syria.

The youths carried Palestinian and black flags as they marched in the Ain al-Helweh and Mieh Mieh camps where a general strike was observed, with schools and businesses closed.