Security forces were on Monday investigating the death of a toddler in the northern city of Tripoli after a private hospital allegedly refused to treat him for a severe respiratory illness, the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA and Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) said Mustafa Farouq Dawwash, 18 months, died at dawn Monday after his parents failed to find a room for him at a Tripoli hospital.

Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam and the Free Patriotic Movement have exchanged accusations of responsibility for the delay in the formation of the new government.

FPM officials told As Safir daily published on Monday that “the obstacle in the cabinet formation is Msaitbeh because Salam created the crisis when he came up with the idea of rotation (of portfolios) and held onto it when (al-Mustaqbal bloc leader) ex-PM Fouad Saniora made it as a condition.”

Hizbullah is exerting efforts to convince its ally the Free Patriotic Movement to lower its rhetoric concerning the cabinet formation process and end obstacles hindering the government formation.

According to al-Liwaa newspaper published on Monday, a meeting was held on Sunday evening between FPM's caretaker Energy Minister Jebran Bassil and a delegation from Hizbullah.

Bkirki has adopted a strong rhetoric recently to demand a proper Christian representation in the upcoming cabinet, calling for a fair and balanced division of portfolios.

“No one can be excluded from the cabinet and experience proved that eliminating others will increase the crisis and not resolve it,” Maronite Bishop Boulus Sayyah said in comments published in al-Joumhouria newspaper on Monday.

Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on Monday that contacts are ongoing among the Lebanese foes to end the cabinet standstill, pointing out that consultations haven't reached common grounds yet.

“I have done everything I can to facilitate the cabinet formation process and I'm waiting for others,” Berri said in comments published in al-Joumhouria newspaper.

President Michel Suleiman reiterated on Monday that he would form a non partisan government if the March 8 alliance failed to inform him in the coming three days about the result of its negotiations on an all-embracing cabinet.

“I had previously set January 7 and informed all the officials that I would sign the decree of the government in hopes that it would be based on the 8-8-8 formula,” Suleiman said.

Independence Movement leader Michel Mouawad on Sunday stressed that March 14's acceptance to join a cabinet without prior agreement on its policy statement would be a “major political mistake.”

“The independent figures in March 14 have played an important role in bridging differences in the March 14 camp with a view to accepting participation, but that must happen according to clear principles based on including the Baabda Declaration in the policy statement, removing the army-people-resistance equation and rejecting any text that legitimizes any weapons operating outside state institutions,” Mouawad said at a press conference.

A farmer on Sunday found the remains of a rocket as he was cultivating his land in the southern town of al-Mari in Hasbaya District.

Al-Jadeed television said the man immediately informed the relevant security authorities, which arrived on the scene and took the remains to a military post.

A number of Muslim scholars and clerics who hail from the Bekaa on Sunday staged a protest to condemn the arrest of Sheikh Omar al-Atrash, who is reportedly involved in recent bomb attacks.

“We are protesting due to the injustice that is being practiced against scholars and young men in Sunni regions who are supportive of the Syrian revolution,” Sheikh Khaled al-Arefi said at a sit-in outside the defense ministry building in Yarze.

Caretaker Energy Minister Jebran Bassil stated on Sunday that the concept of rotation of power in cabinet is aimed at retaking the Energy Ministry portfolio from the Free Patriotic Movement.

He said during a press conference: “Rotation of power in cabinet at this point in time is aimed at eliminating the other.”