Lebanese Democratic Party leader State Minister and MP Talal Arslan announced on Monday his resignation from the newly-formed government whose lineup was revealed earlier in the day.

He said during a press conference: “In line with my convictions, I announce before the Lebanese people my resignation from the government of the so-called Premier Najib Miqati whom I am not honored to be seated next to.”

The final hours before announcing the long-awaited cabinet line-up witnessed intense contacts and a surprise meeting at the Baabda Palace between President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati.

After 30 minutes, Speaker Nabih Berri joined the meeting after he was invited “urgently and without previous notice,” Al-Manar television reported.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday telephoned President Michel Suleiman to congratulate him on the formation of a new cabinet led by Prime Minister Najib Miqati after nearly five months of wrangling, Suleiman's office said.

For his part, Suleiman hoped “calm and stability will be restored in Syria in the nearest time.”

After announcing his long-awaited cabinet formation, Prime Minister Najib Miqati insisted on Monday that the new government line-up, in which Hizbullah and its allies have a majority, will not place the country in the “radical camp.”

"The fact that Hizbullah and its allies have 18 seats in the 30-member cabinet does not mean that the country will join the radical camp in terms of its relations with the international community," Miqati told Agence France Presse.

The following is the lineup of Miqati’s 30-member government:

Sunnis:

General Director of the army command Brigadier General Hassan Ayoub rejected hints that “illegal armed militants” had deployed along the Lebanese-Syrian border in the North, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Monday.

He instead confirmed that the Lebanese army is deployed along the border.

The March 8 camp may withdraw its confidence from Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati because of its doubts over his ability to form a new government, reported al-Liwa newspaper on Monday.

It has been disappointed with his efforts and may set a deadline of next Wednesday to withdraw confidence from him regardless if such a step is constitutional or not, said the newspaper.

France said that an initiative aimed at solving the Lebanese crisis is “not rational” especially with the expected release in the upcoming weeks of the indictment in the probe into ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination, the pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat reported on Monday.

A High-ranking French source told the daily that the time taken by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to issue the indictment paved way for Lebanese officials to “absorb” the results of the accusations.

The indictment in the probe into the 2005 killing of former Premier Rafik Hariri will be issued later in the month or in early July, a judicial source at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon said.

The source told al-Liwaa newspaper published Monday that the indictment will be issued between June 20 and July 5. He did not give further details.

The Facebook social network website is not available anymore for lawmakers at the parliament, An Nahar newspaper reported on Monday.

MPs were surprised for being banned from accessing their accounts on the network in their offices, it said.