Speaker Nabih Berri has reportedly stressed that he rejects aggravating his relations with Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun but he cannot stand idle to attempts to paralyze state institutions.

Berri told Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal movement officials that he “does not want to cut ties with him (Aoun) or aggravate them. But that we are in a dangerous stage and we can't stand idle to paralysis,” al-Akhbar daily reported Friday.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam has rejected claims that he is suppressing some parties in the government, warning them not to challenge him.

“I am practicing my constitutional authorities and neither challenging nor quelling anyone,” Salam told al-Liwaa daily published on Friday.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun warned Thursday that the country will head towards an “explosion” if the government continues what he described as its “coup against the Constitution.”

“It's about time we frankly told people about what's really happening in Lebanon. The behavior of some ministers and MPs is subjecting the country to dangers,” said Aoun at a press conference he held after an extraordinary meeting for his Change and Reform bloc.

Speaker Nabih Berri has said that the cabinet will convene on Thursday as long as the two-thirds majority of ministers attend the session that will be chaired by Prime Minister Tammam Salam.

Local dailies quoted him as saying on Wednesday that “as long as the two-thirds majority of ministers is secured, then the session will be held.”

Prime Minister Tammam Salam has said that he called for a cabinet session next Thursday because he could no longer wait for the rival political parties to resolve their disputes.

Salam was quoted as saying by his visitors “I could no longer wait.”

Change and Reform bloc secretary MP Ibrahim Kanaan held talks Monday with the main Christian parties in a bid to clinch their support for Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun's proposal on carrying out a survey to determine which Christian party or parties are influential in the country.

Following a meeting with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea in Maarab, Kanaan said the LF chief reiterated to him “his support for organizing the survey.”

Prime Minister Tammam Salam called on the cabinet to convene on Thursday after a three-week suspension of sessions over the dispute on security appointments.

Salam made the announcement in a terse statement he issued on Monday after local dailies quoted him as saying that he will continue his consultations with the representatives of political parties this week.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea downplayed the criticism of a survey that his party and the Free Patriotic Movement plan to carry out as part of efforts to resolve the presidential deadlock.

“I don't understand why the issue has stirred such reactions although all parties carry out surveys on the elections and other issues,” Geagea said in remarks published on Monday.

Chances that the cabinet could resume its stalled sessions are rising as Prime Minister Tammam Salam is likely to call for a convention next week or the week after, pan-Arab al-Hayat daily stated on Sunday.

“Salam met with Speaker Nabih Berri on Saturday and the two men discussed the governmental paralysis, highlighting the need for a quick cabinet convention,” unnamed sources told the daily.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam is allegedly procrastinating on calling for a cabinet session to avoid a confrontation between the Hizbullah ministers and Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi against the backdrop of the video of the Roumieh prison torture.

Salam has expressed fears that the dispute between them would grow after Rifi, who represents al-Mustaqbal Movement in the cabinet, accused Hizbullah of leaking the video clips showing several prison guards beating Islamist inmates, al-Joumhouria newspaper said Friday.