The Lebanese Forces has informed the March 14 alliance that the LF would back Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun for the presidency, An Nahar daily reported on Monday.

The newspaper said that LF lawmaker George Adwan made the announcement on his party's serious intention to back Aoun during a meeting that was held by the coalition’s leaders on Sunday night.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh have held a second meeting to discuss the Mustaqbal Movement leader's controversial presidential initiative, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Monday.

The daily said that the meeting took place last week “to discuss the developments on Hariri's attempt to back Franjieh for the presidency.”

Prime Minister Tammam Salam has stressed that dialogue remained the only option to resolve the country's lingering crises and hinted that he would stick to the agenda of a cabinet session he has called for despite the reservations of the Free Patriotic Movement.

“Dialogue was and will remain the bridge to all desired solutions,” Salam said in remarks published in several local newspapers on Monday.

Former president Michel Suleiman held talks Sunday in Riyadh with al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri.

A statement issued by Hariri's press office said the meeting at the ex-PM's residence focused on “the threats posed by the presidential vacuum and the need to end this abnormal and dangerous situation through electing a president as soon as possible.”

Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil on Sunday expressed Lebanon's rejection of an Arab League statement condemning Hizbullah over alleged interference in Bahrain.

“This Lebanese stance is based on Lebanon's interest in preserving the region's stability and its domestic unity and stability,” Bassil told a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo.

A senior Hizbullah official on Sunday slammed as “blatant lies” reports accusing his party and the Syrian regime of imposing a so-called starvation siege on the Syrian town of Madaya.

“The so-called Madaya issue reflects utter lying, charlatanry, malice and ignorance, seeing as some people do not want to think or to use their brains,” said Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, head of Hizbullah's Executive Council.

Sierra Leone denied on Sunday media reports that said that it is willing to receive Lebanon's garbage as part of a recently approved deal to tackle the country's waste management problem, reported al-Jadeed television.

Sierra Leone's consul in Lebanon Donald Roy Josepeh Abed deemed the reports as “baseless.”

Security forces announced on Sunday the arrest of the main member of the group that was responsible for twin bombings in Beirut's southern suburbs on November 12, reported Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3).

It said that a man, known as “Abou Talha”, was arrested in al-Qobbeh neighborhood in the northern city of Tripoli.

The vacuum in the presidency has raised questions in whether the municipal elections, set for later this year, will be held on time, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Sunday.

Speaker Nabih Berri had informed Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq on Friday that he supports holding the polls on their scheduled time.

The Free Patriotic Movement has not yet determined whether it will attend next week's cabinet session, reported the daily al-Mustaqbal on Sunday.

A prominent FPM source told the daily that Change and Reform bloc chief MP Michel Aoun “is awaiting answers to certain questions” before taking any decision.