Cabinet ministers engaged in a long debate on Tuesday over public spending amid a report that spending based on the 2005 budget was not enough in paying the salaries of civil servants.

A $5.9 billion 2011 spending bill hasn’t been approved by the parliament yet. But if approved, it would legalize spending by the government above 2005 levels.

Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan said on Tuesday that the bloc’s primary goal is to rectify the functioning of the country’s state institutions according to legal means and not by forcing the people to succumb to its political interests.

He stated after the bloc’s weekly meeting: “Completing the state budget is the government’s most important task.”

Mustaqbal bloc MPs Hadi Hbeish and Jamal al-Jarrah accused on Monday the Free Patriotic Movement of misleading the public over former Premier Fouad Saniora’s alleged financial violations in the national lottery in 1996.

They said in a press conference to refute the movement’s claims: “FPM leader MP Michel Aoun has no right to speak of squandering public funds because those who have a history in such affairs are not entitled to accuse others of such crimes.”

Change and Reform bloc MP Michel al-Helou revealed on Tuesday that the bloc has decided to form a committee to study the Shura Council’s rejection of the government’s wage hike decree.

He said after the bloc’s weekly meeting: “Our initial assessment has determined that the Shura Council’s decision has legal flaws.”

The head of the Mustaqbal bloc MP Fouad Saniora stated on Thursday that Christians in Lebanon and the Arab world have long been pioneers in committing to democracy.

He said after holding talks with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi at Bkirki: “The democratic changes in the Arab world therefore help bolster the role of Lebanon and its Christians.”

The Mustaqbal movement is gearing up for a mass rally it is planning to hold in the northern city of Tripoli on Sunday on the occasion of Independence Day.

An Nahar daily said that MPs Mohammed Kabbara, Samir al-Jisr, Marwan Hamadeh and Butros Harb will address the crowds. Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora will deliver the speech of former Premier Saad Hariri, it added.

United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon ad interim, Robert Watkins, held talks on Thursday with President Michel Suleiman and former Prime Minister Fouad Saniora on the implementation of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701.

Watkins briefed Suleiman on U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s latest report on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701, which was submitted to the members of the Security Council on November 15.

The head of the Mustaqbal bloc MP Fouad Saniora is preparing to file a lawsuit against the head of the Finance and Budget Committee MP Ibrahim Kanaan, revealed al-Liwaa newspaper on Tuesday.

The former prime minister had accused the MP of being ignorant of financial affairs.

Speaker Nabih Berri is annoyed at the lack of contacts with former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Berri’s visitors told the daily that he doesn’t want the political boycott to last any further, expressing relief after al-Mustaqbal bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora attended a dinner banquet held in honor of visiting Brazilian Vice-President Michel Temer.

March 14 camp MPs withdrew on Monday from the parliamentary Finance and Budget Committee meeting over accusations Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan directed against the head of the Mustaqbal bloc MP Fouad Saniora, reported Voice of Lebanon radio.

It said that the MPs refuse to return to the committee before Kanaan issues an apology over his allegations.