The rift between the Lebanese foes is expected to deepen as media reports said on Wednesday that President Michel Suleiman is expected to call for a session for the caretaker cabinet next week.

According to An Nahar newspaper, Suleiman will call for a session that would focus on the preparations for the upcoming parliamentary elections based on the 1960 law.

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel stated on Tuesday that a neutral cabinet cannot face the huge challenges ahead of Lebanon, stressing that the country is in “desperate need of a rescue government that pushes for consensus over an electoral law”.

“There is an international economic crisis and the future cabinet must face all challenges because if a problem hits Lebanon, no country is available to help us,” Gemayel elaborated in an interview on NBN television.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday launched a vehement verbal attack on Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat and hinted that he will not renominate Najib Miqati for the premiership.

“Jumblat is mentally unstable and he is trying to punish us because we backed the Orthodox Gathering (electoral) law,” said Aoun during an interview on his movement's mouthpiece OTV.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Tuesday stressed that he will not “voice any stance or comment” on his candidate for the premiership before his upcoming TV interview on Thursday evening.

In a brief phone interview with al-Manar television, Jumblat declined to comment on a media report claiming that he will back former premier Saad Hariri's pick for the premiership.

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday reiterated its call for holding the elections on time without any “postponement or stalling in this matter”, expressing their support for a hybrid electoral law.

"The bloc is now working on developing an advanced formula of the hybrid proposal,” the MPs revealed in a released statement after the bloc's weekly meeting at the Center House.

A sit-in was held Tuesday at Tripoli's Abdul Hamid Karami Square by the relatives and friends of a young Tripolitan man who was found dead several days ago in Dahiyeh.

“The relatives and friends of the victim Samer Kanj staged a sit-in at the Abdul Hamid Karami Square in Tripoli and blocked the main road outside the serail in protest at the death of their son in (Beirut's) southern suburb in mysterious circumstances,” state-run National News Agency reported.

Free Patriotic Movement MP Ibrahim Kanaan stated on Tuesday that an agreement on a parliamentary electoral law is the first step towards staging the elections.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc's weekly meeting: “MPs who are keen on Lebanon should head to parliament to agree on a new electoral law.”

Independent Christian March 14 MPs stressed on Tuesday the need to form a neutral government that can oversee the parliamentary elections.

They said after a meeting at MP Butros Harb's residence: “We will coordinate our stances with the March 14 camp in order to reach an agreement over a new prime minister who will form a neutral cabinet.”

Beirut Examining Magistrate Judge Ghassan Owaidat issued on Tuesday arrest warrants against the seven suspects involved in the attacks against four Sheikhs in Beirut.

Owaidat kicked off interrogations with the seven men earlier in the day.

Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel shied away on Tuesday from revealing the timeframe for the postponement of the parliamentary elections but said he needed six months of preparations for the polls if there was consensus on a new law.

During a visit to the general-directorate of the Internal Security Forces in the Beirut neighborhood of Ashrafiyeh, Charbel said: “I can only announce for how long the polls will be postponed when agreement is reached on a new law.”