An agreement on the formation of the new government has not yet been reached but the negotiations are still ongoing, a media report said on Wednesday.

President Michel Aoun has awarded the National Order of the Cedar of the Grand Cordon grade to the late Higher Islamic Shiite Council head Sheikh Abdul Amir Qabalan, who will be laid to rest on Tuesday.

In a statement, the Presidency said Aoun’s move comes in appreciation of Qabalan’s “national, religious, social and humanitarian achievements.”

General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim has succeeded in securing an agreement concerning all the ministerial portfolios, according to MP Assem Araji – a member of al-Mustaqbal bloc.

The funds earmarked by the central bank for the subsidization of fuel “have run out,” an official source concerned with the file said on Tuesday.

“Banque du Liban has stopped granting permissions for subsidized importation,” the source told Annahar newspaper.

A new draft cabinet line-up has emerged according to media reports. Al-Akhbar newspaper said the names in the draft enjoy the approval of both President Michel Aoun and PM-designate Najib Miqati.

Below is the line-up published Tuesday in al-Akhbar:

Despite the reported consensus on most ministerial portfolios and candidates, an unknown hurdle prevented PM-designate Najib Miqati from visiting Baabda on Monday, amid reports of an expected visit on Wednesday, a media report said on Tuesday.

Just as during the 1975-1990 civil war that ravaged their country, hundreds of Lebanese families are turning to neighboring Cyprus to escape the miseries of everyday life back home.

Short-haul flights from Beirut to Larnaca, barely a 25-minute hop away, have been busy for months ferrying in Lebanese for whom their crisis-hit country with its dire shortages has become unlivable.

The general atmosphere is “positive” and the new government is supposed to be formed in the “next few hours,” a Free Patriotic Movement lawmaker said on Monday.

The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon, Najat Rochdi, has announced a US$6 million allocation from the Lebanon Humanitarian Fund (LHF) to ensure the continuation of critical health care services affected by the ongoing fuel crisis in the country.

This will complement a $4 million allocation from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) in support of water services as announced last week by the Emergency Relief Coordinator.

The Free Patriotic Movement is still “standing against a government of three eights,” considering it a "non-veiled" attempt at tripartite Christian-Sunni-Shiite power-sharing, FPM sources said.