The cabinet is not likely to reach a deal on the controversial resistance clause of the policy statement before a rally organized by the March 14 alliance on Friday afternoon, Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat said.

In remarks carried by al-Akhbar daily, Jumblat did not expect a deal on the clause although Prime Minister Tammam Salam was eager for the cabinet to meet before the rally to avoid a further deterioration in the row between the March 8 and 14 alliances.

Speaker Nabih Berri has said a proposal made by him could salvage the government, hoping that Premier Tammam Salam would not resign before Monday.

In remarks to As Safir daily published on Friday, Berri said: “If there were good intentions and readiness to reach a settlement, then this proposal should be accepted by the March 14” camp.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi held on Thursday telephone conversations with Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Tammam Salam on the dispute over the cabinet's policy statement, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said al-Rahi urged both Berri and Salam to exert stronger efforts to find a solution to the policy statement row between the March 8 and March 14 alliances.

Speaker Nabih Berri expressed resentment on Wednesday over the failure of the ministerial panel drafting a government policy statement to reach agreement over controversial issues, adding that March 8 coalition is holding onto the resistance clause.

“The remaining timeframe for the panel to draft the policy statement ends next week,” Berri warned in comments published in As Safir newspaper, calling on all sides to exert efforts to find common grounds.

Speaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat have decided to wait for a rally organized by the March 14 alliance on Friday to make their proposal to resolve the policy statement deadlock, media reports said.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam called for a cabinet meeting on Thursday to take an “appropriate decision” on the dispute between March 14 and the Hizbullah-led March 8 camp over the resistance clause after a seven-member committee failed in its tenth meeting to resolve the row.

Speaker Nabih Berri has refused to reveal the details of a proposal made with Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat to resolve the resistance deadlock in the policy statement but stressed that the clause included Israeli attacks on Lebanon's natural resources.

Berri and Jumblat, a centrist and the head of the National Struggle Front parliamentary bloc, have made a joint proposal that will be discussed on Tuesday during the tenth meeting of a seven-member committee tasked with drafting the policy statement of Prime Minister Tammam Salam's cabinet.

March 14 officials and ministers representing the coalition in Prime Minister Tammam Salam's government discussed on Monday night the deadlock on the policy statement as the rival parties continued to hold onto their conditions, An Nahar daily reported.

The newspaper said Tuesday that the meeting mainly tackled the impasse on the blueprint as a seven-member ministerial committee tasked with drafting the statement is scheduled to hold its tenth session.

President Michel Suleiman thanked on Monday Qatar's Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, for Doha's role in the release in Syria of more than a dozen Greek Orthodox nuns.

A Baabda Palace statement said that during phone conversations, Suleiman also thanked the Syrian government and other parties involved in the release of the nuns in exchange for Syrian authorities setting free dozens of female prisoners.

President Michel Suleiman stressed on Saturday that the Baabda declaration reflects the aspirations of the Lebanese, calling on the arch-foes to ink the cabinet's policy statement based on the consensus of its formation.

“The state is the only guarantee for national unity and history has proved that we are strong when we have agreement on the broad national issues,” Suleiman said in a speech during the opening of Lebanese Economic Forum at the Four Seasons Hotel in Biel.

Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil has reportedly changed Lebanon's clause of the final statement of the Arab Foreign Ministers meeting that will be held on Sunday amid lack of consensus among the rival parties on the policy statement of Prime Minister Tammam Salam's cabinet.

Al-Akhbar newspaper quoted a source in Cairo as saying that the version sent by Bassil was totally different from that of his predecessor ex-FM Adnan Mansour, who according to An Nahar has held onto the “army-people-resistance” equation.