Al-Mustaqbal bloc leader Fouad Saniora met on Tuesday with Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah, who expressed readiness to help Lebanon overcome its crises.

A statement issued by Saniora's press office, said the lawmaker thanked the Emir because “the state of Kuwait has always stood by Lebanon in all stages and has supported Lebanon and the Lebanese people at all levels.”

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.”

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc leader Fouad Saniora has rejected to back off from an agreement reached between the country's top leaders on the rotation of portfolios in the new government.

“We totally reject that,” Saniora said in remarks published on Saturday.

Head of al-Mustaqbal Parliamentary bloc MP Fouad Saniora stressed that contacts are ongoing with the March 8 alliance over the cabinet formation process, noting that the remaining obstacle is the cabinet's ministerial statement.

Saniora expressed optimism, in comments published in al-Liwaa newspaper on Friday, over the progress of negotiations with the rival coalition.

Speaker Nabih Berri has denied that he was questioned by al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora over the consultations on the government formation process.

Berri told local dailies published on Wednesday that he stressed to Saniora the importance of keeping discussions on the policy statement to the aftermath of the cabinet formation.

Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam held talks with head of al-Mustaqbal Parliamentary bloc MP Fouad Saniora as optimism loomed over the formation of an all-embracing cabinet

The meeting between the two officials on Monday night focused on the latest developments regarding the cabinet formation process.

Head of the Mustaqbal bloc MP Fouad Saniora described as “good” a meeting he held on Monday with Speaker Nabih Berri.

He said after the talks: “We had a good and beneficial meeting and we will continue consultations over the formation of a new government.”

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora visited on Saturday President Michel Suleiman, who urged all parties to make concessions to form a government that wins parliament's vote of confidence.

Saniora's press office said after his talks with Suleiman at Baabda Palace that the meeting was “serious” and “honest.”

A committee made up of March 14 officials has been holding discussions to unify the proposals on the coalition's new strategy, the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa newspaper reported Tuesday.

The daily quoted informed sources as saying that the committee's initial talks are focusing on merging the proposals of the alliance’s different parties on the strategy pending an agreement over their joint vision on the situation in the country, including Hizbullah's assistance to keep its fighters in Syria.

Several northern leaders condemned on Saturday the torching of Father Ibrahim Sarrouj's historical library in the northern city of Tripoli, considering that this act does not conform to the teachings of Islam.

Hundreds of civil society members also took to the streets of Tripoli to protest the torching of a decades-old library owned by the Greek Orthodox priest.