The Cabinet on Monday approved the draft 2018 state budget, sending it to Parliament for ratification.

“The budgets of all ministries have been slashed by 20% and I thank the finance minister for finalizing the state budget,” Prime Minister Saad Hariri said at a joint press conference with Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, describing Cabinet's speedy approval of the budget as an “achievement.”

Acting U.N. Special Coordinator Pernille Dahler Kardel held talks Monday with President Michel Aoun and noted that Wednesday's Rome II conference can help Lebanon “extend state authority throughout the country.”

President Michel Aoun on Monday received an invitation to visit Qatar from the Gulf emirate's ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri has met with French Ambassador to Lebanon Bruno Foucher on Monday, as Lebanon is gearing up for the Cedre Conference, a major donor conference to be held Paris on April the 6th.

Discussions highlighted the preparations ahead of the conference which was called the Paris IV Conference. It aims at garnering international support for Lebanon's economy and seek funding for an infrastructure investment program.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri has met on Monday with visiting Armenian counterpart Karen Karapetyan at the Grand Serail, the National News Agency reported.

In joint press conference, Karapetyan affirmed “close ties and high-standard relations between Lebanon and Armenia.”

President Michel Aoun on Monday said that transforming the government institutions into a robust e-government program “prevents corruption and fraud.”

The Lebanese Forces is expected to declare the party's candidates and electoral program in the parliamentary elections on Wednesday, amid reports claiming that negotiations to strike a coalition with its once-ally al-Mustaqbal Movement still “suffer a setback,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Monday.

“The LF negotiations with Mustaqbal are still facing a setback, but they are ongoing although their success chances are decreasing with regard to achieving the desired result in some districts,” LF sources told the daily.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced Sunday that each vote that goes to a Mustaqbal Movement candidate in the May parliamentary elections will be “a vote for Rafik Hariri’s project and for Lebanon’s stability, economy, sovereignty and Arab identity.”

Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel on Sunday called for an “uprising” in the country’s upcoming parliamentary elections, as he reiterated his call for “neutrality” in the region.

Speaking at the Legend venue in Nahr el-Kalb at a ceremony to announce Kataeb’s electoral platform, Gemayel described the May 2018 parliamentary polls as “the public opinion’s uprising against mistakes and submission,” urging every citizen to “shoulder the responsibility and hold accountable every politician who believes that people are followers.”

There is no imminent meeting scheduled between Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the leader of al-Mustaqbal Movement, LF spokesman Charles Jabbour said on Sunday.