President Michel Suleiman called on Friday for holding the elections based on the winner-takes-all system if parliament failed to agree on a new draft-law but said the legislature could be later dissolved and polls held if a new law was adopted.

“Everyone is doubting whether the parliament would represent the Lebanese fairly,” he told al-Joumhouria newspaper.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour warned Friday that meddling in Syria's internal affairs will only “prolong” the crisis further, pointing out that Syrian refugees in Lebanon are a “definite burden” on the Lebanese state, the An Nahar daily reported.

The daily quoted Mansour as telling the Russian Novosti News Agency that “large numbers of Syrian refugees are now in Lebanon which undoubtedly constitute a large burden on the Lebanese state.”

A national dialogue session scheduled to be held on January 7 is likely to face the same fate of its predecessor after the March 14 opposition alliance threw the ball in President Michel Suleiman's court again saying the resignation of the government is a prerequisite for its attendance of the talks.

Baabda palace sources told An Nahar daily published on Friday that “the opposition can't throw the ball of the cabinet change in the president's court by linking the issue to dialogue.”

An army patrol found on Thursday Israeli-made mortar shells and artillery in the southern town of al-Zrariyeh.

"The mortar shells that were found were set to explode," MTV reported.

One person was killed on Thursday in an armed dispute in the Bekaa region, reported the National News Agency.

It said that Ali Suleiman al-Moussawi was killed in the town of Masa in the outskirts of the town of Ali al-Nahri when a man identified as M.T. opened fire at him and his brother Hussein.

Electricite du Liban contract workers threatened on Thursday to resume strikes to protest the cabinet's procrastination to carry out their demands.

A delegation representing the contract workers held an “urgent” meeting with head of the General Labor Confederation Ghassan Ghosn, warning that they will escalate their endeavors if the government failed to carry out an agreement concerning their full-time employment.

President Michel Suleiman stressed on Thursday that threats to target foreign countries' interests in Lebanon will have negative impact on the country after the families of abducted Lebanese pilgrims in Syria warned of targeting Turkish interests if the men weren't released soon.

The president, during the final cabinet session of 2012 held at the Baabda Palace, pointed out that he is directly following up the case along with Prime Minister Najib Miqati and the competent ministerial committee.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea criticized on Thursday President Michel Suleiman's recent remarks on the national dialogue and the March 14 camp's boycott of government-related activity, saying that the alliance had long demanded “serious and constructive” dialogue that “does not cancel agreements reached during previous sessions.”

He announced in an open letter to the president: “We are willing to return to parliament to discuss a fair electoral parliamentary electoral law once the speaker issues a call for a session aimed solely for this purpose.”

The Higher Islamic Shiite Council urged on Thursday the families of the abducted Lebanese pilgrims in Syria to have patience, rejecting any “negative” endeavor that they might adopt to press forward the release of the men.

A meeting held between the Council's Vice President Abdul Amir Qabalan and Sheikh Abbas Zgheib, who has been tasked by the authority to follow up the case, called on the families not to further complicate the case.

The Lebanese Army command said Thursday that troops arrested several suspects involved in a gunfight between two clans in the eastern city of Baalbek.

“A dispute between residents of the area of al-Sharawina over family affairs turned into a gunfight with light weapons” on Wednesday night, an army communique said.