French Ambassador Denis Pietton said Wednesday that he reiterated to Premier Saad Hariri French commitment to support and provide equipment to the Lebanese army.

After meeting with Premier Saad Hariri at the Grand Serail, Pietton said he delivered to the prime minister a letter from his French counterpart Francois Fillon in which he reiterated Paris' commitment to help the Lebanese military.

The March 14 general-secretariat defended on Wednesday Premier Saad Hariri's proposed solution to the controversial issue of false witnesses and said the March 8 forces' insistence to allegedly reject legal answers to the problem will be faced by stiff insistence to refuse blackmail.

"March 8 forces' insistence to reject all legal and constitutional solutions" to the false witnesses issue will be faced by March 14's "insistence to reject blackmail," the general-secretariat said following its weekly meeting.

The Justice Palace in Baabda was evacuated on Wednesday after receiving a bomb threat.

Local media quoted security sources as saying an anonymous person called shortly after midday to inform there is a bomb planted in the Justice Palace in Baabda, 11 kilometers east of Beirut.

A group of 281 cadets completed on Wednesday the U.S.-funded Basic Cadet Police Training Course and joined the ranks of the Internal Security Forces (ISF), a U.S. Embassy press release reported.

It said the graduating police cadets completed a ten-week, "state-of-the-art" training program taught by American and Lebanese instructors, focusing on "the latest policing and law enforcement skills and the application of these skills to specific law-enforcement situations."

Security agencies protecting Prime Minister Saad Hariri are using advanced Israeli equipment that detects hostile forces several kilometers away, Israel Radio reported Wednesday.

It quoted Israeli police as saying that the equipment functions in waves that are difficult to track and block.

Iraqi Premier-designate Nuri al-Maliki has received orders from Iran to give the Iraqi nationality to Hizbullah members and protect them against the indictment of the international tribunal, a former Iraqi lawmaker told the Saudi daily al-Watan.

Al-Maliki "received Iranian orders to give the Iraqi nationality to members of the Lebanese Hizbullah after formation of the new cabinet," the former MP said in remarks published on Wednesday.

Officials close to French President Nicolas Sarkozy are warning that Israel could invade Lebanon if Hizbullah alters the balance of power in Lebanon and targets the national unity cabinet, As Safir daily said.

An Arab diplomatic source in Paris also told As Safir that efforts to find a solution to the Lebanese crisis and contain the repercussions of the indictment that will be issued by the international tribunal would not succeed without Syria's interference.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri told the leading newspaper An-Nahar that the Opposition awaits response to its offer from Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

"We (Opposition) have proposed a purely Lebanon-made solution," Berri said in remarks published by An-Nahar on Wednesday.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is expected to visit Beirut next month, Central News Agency reported.

The agency quoted diplomatic sources as saying that Medvedev would visit the Lebanese capital in January in response to an invitation from President Michel Suleiman.

Ireland's cabinet gave the green light for the deployment of 440 Irish soldiers in south Lebanon as part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

The troops are expected to be deployed in the south in the second half of 2011.