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. Defense Secretary Robert Gates approved a freeze on weapon shipments to the Lebanese army following the collapse of Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri’s government in January, said The Wall Street Journal on Monday.

The decision underlines growing concerns about Hizbullah's role after the party and its allies named Najib Miqati as premier-designate.

A group of angry Lebanese youths on Saturday threw stones and bottles at a group from the U.S. embassy visiting the southern port city of Sidon, a security official said.

A spokesman for the U.S. mission confirmed there had been "an incident."

Number-two Republican Senator Jon Kyl, a fierce critic of U.S. President Barack Obama's efforts to engage Syria, said Washington should call for Syrian leader Bashar Assad to step down for undermining Lebanon’s democracy and smuggling weapons to Hizbullah.

“We should not be fooled by his sacking of his government. This is still the same Assad who undermined Lebanese democracy, who worked with North Korea to develop a clandestine nuclear capability, and who smuggles arms to Hizbullah and lends support to Hamas,” Kyl said in a statement on Wednesday.

A key speech by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday lacked real substance and failed to mention the kind of reforms his people are demanding, the United States said.

In a bid to quell weeks of protests against his iron-clad rule, Assad earlier gave a rare address in parliament.

U.S. President Barack Obama said he is confident that Moammar Gadhafi will "ultimately" step down, as a new poll Wednesday found nearly half of Americans were opposed to U.S. military involvement in Libya.

Obama warned Tuesday he had not ruled out supplying arms to rebels seeking to oust him, and said the "noose is tightening" around the Libyan strongman.

The United States sought to use the indictment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to back Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri after his government was toppled by the Hizbullah-led alliance, As Safir daily reported Wednesday.

The newspaper said that the U.S. administration contacted tribunal officials immediately after the toppling of the cabinet to use the indictment as a political pressure aimed at bringing back Hariri to power and sidelining Hizbullah.

Hizbullah and Amal have condemned the burning of a copy of the Qoran by controversial U.S. Pastor Terry Jones at a small Florida church earlier in the week.

The burning was carried out by pastor Wayne Sapp under the supervision of Jones, who last September drew sweeping condemnation over his plan to ignite a pile of Qorans on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on the importance of speeding up the formation of the Lebanese cabinet, denying that Syria rejected efforts to form the new government.

In his remarks to As Safir daily published on Tuesday, Berri said that accusations about the lack of a Syrian green light on the cabinet are not true.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has denied that he had said Premier-designate Najib Miqati was being pressured by the U.S. through the Lebanese banking sector.

“I haven’t talked about any pressure over the banking issue” or other sectors, Jumblat told An Nahar daily in remarks published Monday after Hizbullah’s al-Manar TV quoted him as saying that Washington was pressuring Miqati by threatening to target banks in which he has shares.