The so-called Abra detainees have suspended their hunger strike after receiving promises that their trials would start this month, the state-run National News Agency reported Wednesday.

The suspects, who were held following the clashes that took place with the Lebanese army near the southern city of Sidon last year, went on hunger strike in Jezzine prison on Monday to protest the delay in holding their trials.

Deputy Speaker Farid Makari slammed the political apathy, warning of extending the period of presidential vacuum over the sharp differences between the rival parties.

“Before May 25 the political arch-foes were enthusiastic to elect a new president... but now each alliance is reconsidering its stances, which might affect the period of vacancy,” Makari said in a interview with the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.

Health Minister Wael Abou Faour has denied that the Progressive Socialist Party was not comfortable with the rapprochement between Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun and al-Mustaqbal movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri.

“We don't have any problem with the rapprochement between Aoun and Hariri. This issue is absolutely not linked to us,” the minister told As Safir newspaper published on Wednesday.

A row in the cabinet over a mechanism regulating the government’s work during the ongoing presidential vacuum caused Prime Minister Tammam Salam to express irritation, stressing that it would tarnish the image of the executive authority.

“I am a very patient person but am also clear. I will hold onto the implementation of the constitution,” Salam said, according to media reports published on Wednesday.

A ministerial-parliamentary committee, which has amended a controversial wage hike draft-law for the public sector, is holding meetings away from the media spotlight to reach a formula that is acceptable by all sides, MP Jamal al-Jarrah said.

Al-Jarrah, who is a member of the committee, told al-Liwaa newspaper published on Wednesday that the meetings are aimed at bridging the gap between the different parties involved in the wage scale crisis ahead of a parliamentary session scheduled to discuss the draft-law on June 10.

Speaker Nabih Berri has issued a stern warning against the MPs who are boycotting parliamentary sessions, saying he would take measures against them for “only choosing from the menu the food they like.”

In remarks to As Safir newspaper published on Wednesday, Berri said: “Things would get straight if those who are boycotting the (sessions) implement the Constitution and laws.”

The Free Patriotic Movement chief, Michel Aoun, will send an aide to hold a meeting with head of al-Mustaqbal movement Saad Hariri to know his final answer regarding his run for the presidency.

Sources close to Aoun said in comments published in An Nahar newspaper on Wednesday that Aoun will task his aide to hold talks with Hariri within a period of three weeks maximum.

The cabinet on Tuesday failed for the second time to reach an agreement over a mechanism regulating the government’s work during the ongoing period of presidential vacuum, despite a “positive” atmosphere.

“The situations outside the cabinet will not lead to a political settlement anytime soon but this has not reached the extent of forcing the government's collapse,” MTV quoted an unnamed minister as saying, in comments related to the current negotiations between the Change and Reform bloc and the al-Mustaqbal movement.

Kataeb Party Central Committee Coordinator MP Sami Gemayel on Tuesday condemned what he described as the “unjustified campaign” against Bkirki over the issue of the Lebanese who fled to Israel, saying “it indicates that some parties are still insisting on evoking the war files.”

“This campaign is unjustified and it indicates that the files of the civil war have not been shelved yet and that some parties are still insisting on evoking files that prevent the Lebanese from closing ranks,” Gemayel was quoted by his visitors as saying, according to a statement distributed by Kataeb's media department.

The Change and Reform parliamentary bloc on Tuesday stressed the need to approve a new electoral law while maintaining efforts to elect a president, rejecting the “collaborators” label for the Lebanese who had fled to Israel in 2000.

“All parliamentary blocs had promised to prepare an electoral law so that we don't resort to another extension but nothing has happened until the moment,” MP Ibrahim Kanaan told reporters after the bloc's weekly meeting.