U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly stressed Friday the United States' commitment to Lebanon's sovereignty and independence and the importance of strong and effective institutions.

She said after holding talks with Prime Minister Saad Hariri in the Center House that the United States is worried about any action that may destabilize Lebanon and its sovereignty.

Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir on Friday said false witnesses in the assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri must be held accountable.

"I know nothing about false witnesses, but any false witness should be held accountable," Sfeir told reporters at Beirut Airport before heading for Rome where he will take part in the Middle East Synod.

Former head of Lebanon's General Security Department Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed offered a three-way solution to the false witnesses' issue:

1- To grant the Judicial Council authority over the case.

Lebanon, Lebanese Army commander Gen. Jean Qahwaji announced.

He said the "military-security plan" covers, apart from Beirut, sensitive points in the north, the Bekaa and Sidon as well as the Beirut-Sidon coastline.

President Michel Suleiman has formed something like a crisis cell to seek "necessary legal and political" exits to the current crisis over the International Tribunal indictment which is set to accuse Hizbullah in the 2005 assassination of former PM-Rafik Hariri.

As-Safir newspaper, which carried the report, said Friday that several proposals were being considered, in addition to almost daily consultation between Suleiman and Syria.

Only the Lebanese can protect their country through achieving a national, brotherly, comprehensive and honest reconciliation that would allow them to solve all issues, achieve justice, solidify stability, turn the page on the past and provide a new hope for the new generation, Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awadh Assiri said Thursday after meeting Marada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh in Bnashii.

"This is what the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia wishes Lebanon," he added.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah may appear together next week at a rally organized by the Shiite group for the Iranian leader's visit to Lebanon, a Hizbullah official said on Thursday.

"We are organizing a rally in honor of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad next Wednesday at the Al-Raya stadium and we expect Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to make an appearance," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Agence France Presse.

Lebanese Forces bloc MP Antoine Zahra on Thursday snapped back at Change and Reform bloc MP Nabil Nicola, reminding him that LF leader Samir Geagea "was released from prison because he was innocent, and more than three quarters of the parliament had voted in favor of the general pardon law, including Free Patriotic Movement MPs."

Zahra wondered if FPM MPs "had voted on the aforementioned law while unconvinced of Geagea's innocence."

A Sunni Islamist group in the northern city of Tripoli sent a blunt "not welcome" message to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday ahead of his visit to the country.

Several banners and pictures of the Shiite Iranian leader, who is due in Lebanon October 13-14, went up in the mainly Sunni port city expressing discontent at the visit.

Lebanese Army Commander Gen. Jean Qahwaji on Thursday warned that the military will confront attempts to stir discord.

"There are no negative signs at present of repercussions of regional conflicts on the Lebanese arena," Qahwaji said during a meeting with command chiefs and unit commanders in Yarze.