Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea revealed to then U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michele Sison that some 10,000 LF fighters were ready to combat Hizbullah if the need arrives, said a leaked U.S. Embassy cable published exclusively in Al-Akhbar newspaper on Tuesday.

Geagea told Sison during a surprise visit to the U.S. Embassy that the fighters “may need to be provided with weapons”, said the WikiLeaks cable dated May 9, 2008.

The Higher Defense Council is scheduled to hold an extraordinary meeting at Baabda palace under President Michel Suleiman at 1:30 pm Tuesday to discuss ways at finding a safe exit for Lebanese expatriates in violence-torn Ivory Coast.

The meeting is rare since it comes at a time of a political vacuum and in the absence of a Lebanese government.

Premier-designate Najib Miqati reiterated that he would form a government that satisfies the Lebanese and respects the Constitution and the Taef Accord.

“I will not shackle myself with any grace period or dates,” Miqati told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Tuesday.

National Struggle Front leader Walid Jumblat has reportedly urged the U.S. to put more pressure on Syria, without allowing it to exploit the international changes for its own benefits.

According to a WikiLeaks cable dated February 20, 2005, carried by OTV, a meeting was held between MP Jumblat and former U.S. ambassador to Lebanon Michele Sison, in the presence of MP Marwan Hamadeh.

The State Department has denied a report that the U.S. has quietly frozen weapon shipments to Lebanon's armed forces but defense officials confirmed that Washington was continuing to provide only training and nonlethal assistance to the Lebanese military.

“Our assistance programs to the Lebanese armed forces continue and that no decision regarding any kind of freeze has been made at this time,” said Acting Deputy Department Spokesman Mark Toner on Monday.

U.S. citizens should avoid traveling to Lebanon, the State Department said Monday in a travel warning two days after a U.S. embassy group was attacked by Lebanese youth.

"The Department of State continues to urge U.S. citizens to avoid all travel to Lebanon due to current safety and security concerns," the warning said.

The Internal Security Forces’ Intelligence Bureau has arrested a man in the town of Sin el-Fil suspected of collaborating with Israel, al-Akhbar daily reported Tuesday.

The newspaper said that the man hails from a southern border town and resides in Sin el-Fil.

Riots erupted again in Lebanon's notorious main prison of Roumieh on Monday, after negotiations between security forces and inmates managed to end a 2-day mutiny on Sunday.

At once, security forces sent reinforcements to the prison as Gendarmarie Commander Salah Jebran arrived on the scene to follow up on the situation and start negotiations with the inmates, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon marked on Monday the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.

At a ceremony at UNIFIL Sector West headquarters in Shamaa, Force Commander Major General Alberto Asarta Cuevas highlighted UNIFIL’s contribution to the effort of de-mining and its impact on helping ensure safer and more prosperous lives for the people of southern Lebanon.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stressed on Monday the need to adopt a new approach in tackling the prisons file in Lebanon given the weekend’s unrest in the Roumieh prison.

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine that new prisons should be constructed and the old ones should be renovated, noting that such matters “have never been a priority for any of the past governments despite our repeated demands that they be given the attention they deserve.”