Speaker Nabih Berri has avoided a disagreement with Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun over his stance from the extension of parliament's mandate but said that the lawmaker has a valuable opinion on a consensual presidential candidate.

As Safir daily on Tuesday quoted Berri as saying that Aoun is an “added value to the joint strategic choices.”

A parliamentary committee tasked with discussing the country's new electoral law kicked off on Monday its first session with an agreement to wrap up the matter within a month.

“If the electoral committee didn't reach an agreement within a month, then Speaker Nabih Berri will propose on the parliament to deliberate on all draft-laws,” MP Robert Ghanem, who is affiliated to the March 14 alliance, told reporters in Ain el-Tineh after the meeting.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea expressed hope that the rival lawmakers would end up agreeing on a new electoral law as a parliamentary committee kick off on Monday talks on the controversial issue.

“The meeting of the committee this time is not just aimed at holding discussions. The evidence to that is the one-month deadline for consensus,” said Geagea.

Speaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat have said they are exerting efforts to launch dialogue between Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal movement.

Local dailies published on Monday quoted Berri as saying that he and Jumblat were seeking to open channels of dialogue between the rival parties.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam expressed frustration on Sunday over his cabinet's lack of productivity, considering that the sharp political rift in the country has a direct impact on the government's work.

“The cabinet is using half its capacities,” Salam told An Nahar newspaper, urging all sides to revitalize the government work so that it will once again be productive.

Health Minister Wael Abu Faour on Friday referred the food safety scandal to the public prosecutor and asked the interior minister to shut down three violating firms in Beirut and its southern suburbs.

The minister ordered “taking all measures necessary to forbid the sale of meat – kafta, minced meat, soujouk and basterma – at the al-Natour Butchery in Ras Beirut, and to seize the manufacturing, mincing and mixing machines,” state-run National News Agency reported.

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon Head of Mission and Force Commander Major-General Luciano Portolano briefed on Friday Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Tammam Salam on UNIFIL's joint efforts with the Lebanese army to maintain calm and stability in the South and along the Blue Line.

Portlando discussed with the two officials in separate meetings the situation in UNIFIL’s area of operations and issues related to the implementation of UNIFIL’s mandate under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701.

Speaker Nabih Berri has discussed with al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora the political crises gripping the country, As Safir daily reported on Friday.

The newspaper quoted sources as saying that Saniora visited Berri along with Nader Hariri, the adviser of al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri.

President of the Constitutional Council Issam Suleiman stressed on Wednesday that members of the council will deal with any challenge against the extension of the parliament's mandate according to norms.

“Any challenge will be discussed in the presence of all the council's members,” Suleiman told reporters in a press conference in response to a question if the council will fail to meet.

Speaker Nabih Berri is seeking to avoid a crisis with Bkirki over Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi's recent criticism of MPs for the extension of their term until June 2017.

Berri is expressing “understanding” at the anger expressed by al-Rahi over the failure to elect a new president and the extension of the legislature's mandate for two years and seven months, according to local dailies published on Wednesday.