U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams warned that opportunities would be lost and the country would face bigger dangers amid a continued deadlock on the new cabinet.

Williams told An Nahar daily in remarks published on Tuesday that his meetings with top Lebanese officials and calls for speeding up the formation of the new government came over fears that “opportunities would be lost and the dangers would become bigger.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has called for the consolidation of the military institution, saying Lebanon would not exist without the unity of the nation and the army.

“There is no Lebanon without the unity of the country and the military institution,” Jumblat told a delegation headed by retired Maj. Gen. Shawki al-Masri that visited him in Mukhtara on Saturday.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday after talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy that France wants the new Palestinian government to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

"What I heard from President Sarkozy is that they must recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people," Netanyahu said outside the Elysee Palace in Paris, after a meeting he described as "good, far-ranging and friendly".

U.S. Special Middle East Peace Envoy's assistant, Frederick Hoff, paid a two-day visit to Beirut earlier this week, revealed a political source to Akhbar al-Yawm on Wednesday.

A source from the U.S. Embassy told the news agency that his visit was aimed at discussing the implementation of United Nations Security Council resolution 1701.

Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri praised on Wednesday the reconciliation between the Fatah and Hamas Palestinian groups, describing it as a “blessed step” in the Palestinians’ people struggle.

He hoped in a statement that the agreement would pave a way to establishing a Palestinian state and national unity.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal buried the hatchet at a Cairo reconciliation ceremony on Wednesday that ends a nearly four-year feud but has angered Israel.

Palestinians gathered in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip to celebrate the long-awaited agreement to put an end to the rivalry between the administrations in the West Bank and Gaza, and restore the unity shattered by deadly infighting in June 2007.

A Palestinian man convicted of collaboration with Israel was executed in Gaza on Wednesday on the orders of the interior ministry, the Hamas-affiliated Shahab news agency said.

The name of the Palestinian and the specific accusations against him were not detailed.

The "brutality" of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's response to anti-government protesters will lead to the downfall of his regime, according to Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

"I think that Assad is approaching the point where he will lose his internal legitimacy," Barak told Israel's Channel 10 television on Monday night.

President Michel Suleiman hoped on Tuesday that al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden’s death would help pave the way for comprehensive peace in the Middle East.

He hoped that Israel would be pressured to this end and in order to settle the Palestinian crisis.

Premier-designate Najib Miqati has reportedly described Hizbullah as "cancerous" calling for ending the statelet that the party has built to allegedly safeguard Lebanon.

In a WikiLeaks cable published by al-Joumhouria daily on Tuesday, Miqati told former U.S. ambassador Michele Sison that Hizbullah is a "cancerous tumor" and called for removing its statelet whether it was "malignant or benign."