A delegation from the Progressive Socialist Party and the National Struggle Front that are headed by MP Walid Jumblat will visit Speaker Nabih Berri on Monday to discuss with him the National Dialogue that is set to take place in Baabda next week, An Nahar daily reported.

The newspaper said the delegation’s expected visit to Ain el-Tineh comes against the backdrop of Jumblat’s announcement on Sunday that only dialogue can prevent a spillover of the Syrian crisis into Lebanon.

Former Prime Minister Fouad Saniora stated on Friday that the current government paved the way for the recent unrest in the country.

He reiterated his demand for the formation of a “neutral salvation government that would help ease the tensions in Lebanon.”

The Higher Islamic Council deemed on Monday the murder of Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahed and his companion Sheikh Mohammed Merheb on Sunday as an assassination.

It said in a statement after a meeting at Dar al-Fatwa: “We demand that the case be referred to the judicial council.”

Al-Mustaqbal bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora urged the cabinet on Saturday to start preparing the 2012 state budget and to pledge finishing it within two months.

“The problem can’t be resolved in a disorganized and discretionary manner,” Saniora said during a meeting with al-Mustaqbal delegation in his office in Sidon.

Premier Najib Miqati is exerting every effort to guarantee a cabinet consensus on the $5.9 billion extra-budgetary spending of 2011 to avoid an embarrassment after the discussion of the issue was postponed for the second week in a row on Wednesday.

Sources close to Miqati told An Nahar daily published Friday that the solution to the spending crisis continues to face obstacles but hoped that a session set by the PM for next week would give him enough time to find an exit to the bickering between the cabinet’s different members.

Minister of State Panos Manjian has confirmed that the cabinet will convene in Baabda Palace next Wednesday to discuss the extra-budgetary spending and 35 other articles on its agenda.

In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio station (93.3), Manjian said the agenda that was distributed to the cabinet ministers on Friday night includes 36 articles led by the spending issue.

U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton telephoned on Monday President Michel Suleiman to praise his speech at the Arab League summit that was held in Baghdad in late March.

She lauded his call to implement democracy in political practice and expressed her country’s support to such an end.

Al-Mustaqbal bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora visited Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea for the first time after the LF leader escaped an assassination attempt on April 4, An Nahar daily reported Sunday.

Saniora inspected on Friday night the wall that was hit by the bullets intended to target Geagea in the sniper attack in his residence in Maarab, the newspaper said.

Minister of State for Administrative Reform Mohammed Fneish slammed on Wednesday a proposal by al-Mustaqbal movement to form a neutral or technocrat cabinet to supervise the upcoming 2013 elections.

“There’s nothing called a technocrat or a neutral government. We have the Taef accord, unless we are required to import such a new combination,” Fneish told As Safir newspaper.

Opposition MP Marwan Hamadeh accused the March 8 forces of seeking to circumvent the parliament by pressuring President Michel Suleiman into signing a bill on the $5.9 billion extra-budgetary spending of 2011.

In remarks to An Nahar daily published Friday, Hamadeh, who is part of the March 14 coalition, said: “Pressuring the president into signing an urgent bill for the first time since the (adoption of) the Taef (accord) circumvents the parliament which has been initially established to approve financial draft-laws.”