Former Premier Saad Hariri does not intend to return to Beirut soon after receiving information from Western leaders about the possibility of being targeted in an assassination plot, sources close to the Mustaqbal movement leader said in remarks published Friday.

The sources said that French President Nicolas Sarkozy and high-ranking U.S. and U.N. officials have warned him about the plot.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea slammed on Thursday the new government, saying that it does not represent Lebanon and will set the country back to a time before the 2005 Cedar Revolution.

He said during a dinner for Lebanese expatriates in Abu Dhabi: “We will work with all possible democratic means to topple this cabinet.”

Speaker Nabih Berri said he would help the cabinet in its mission to deal with the people’s affairs and make administrative appointments to posts in state institutions.

In remarks to Ad-Diyar daily published Friday, Berri said: “The mission of this government lies in launching a workshop, dealing with the people’s affairs and making appointments.”

France said Friday it was "concerned" by the Lebanese government's attitude towards the Special Tribunal for Lebanon that will try ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s suspected assassins.

Foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said France had noted Prime Minister Najib Miqati's promise that the cabinet would continue to cooperate with the STL.

Street action won’t be able to topple Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s government, “not now, not later,” a parliamentary majority source told As Safir newspaper in remarks published on Friday.

It said that the March 14 camp had nullified the use of such an option when it had previously ignored the massive popular protests that called for the toppling of the government headed by Premier Fouad Saniora.

An official reception was held at the Grand Serail Friday morning in honor of Prime Minister Najib Miqati after his government received the vote of confidence at parliament on Thursday, reported the National News Agency.

He said upon his arrival: “My hand is extended to all sides, the opposition before the pro-government forces, in order to set aside past disputes and start a new chapter of cooperation for the sake of Lebanon.”

A decision by March 14 MPs to storm out of the parliament hall during the vote of confidence was taken last week and was an expression of discontent with the cabinet’s “double standards,” sources said Friday.

A Mustaqbal bloc source told al-Liwaa daily that the decision to walk out of parliament during Thursday's vote was taken at the large-scale meeting held at the Bristol hotel on Sunday.

In the first foreign reaction to the vote of confidence that Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s cabinet received on Thursday, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton expressed concern over the absence in the policy statement of an explicit commitment to the international tribunal.

The confidence vote “will enable Lebanon to respond to the political and economic challenges it is facing,” Ashton said in a statement.

Tom Fletcher is expected to replace Frances Mary Guy as British Ambassador to Lebanon next month after the Lebanese government approved his nomination.

After the announcement of his appointment as Ambassador to Beirut, Fletcher said: "I am thrilled to be coming to Lebanon at such a pivotal period, and will do all I can to support our shared objectives of political and economic stability and protection of democratic and human rights."

In the first comment by an opposition leader on the vote of confidence Premier Najib Miqati’s government won earlier in the day by a 68-vote majority, Phalange Party leader Amin Genayel sarcastically said “Miqati’s government actually got 56 votes.”

Explaining his point of view, Gemayel deducted the 12 votes of the members of Hizbullah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc, noting that the remarks of MP Mohammed Raad, the head of the bloc, during the debate on the Policy Statement “totally contradict with the Policy Statement’s 14th article,” which stipulates that Lebanon will “respect” the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.