U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon David Hale stressed on Monday the need for Lebanese officials to hold the presidential elections and avoid vacuum in the country's top post.

He said after holding separate meetings President Michel Suleiman and Speaker Nabih Berri: “We urge Lebanon’s leaders to conduct the presidential election on time and in accordance with the constitution.”

Prime Minister Tammam Salam warned on Monday of the dangers of presidential vacuum in Lebanon, saying that efforts should be exerted to avoid it.

He said after holding talks with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi at the Grand Serail: “Vacuum in the presidency will harm the Maronite sect and the whole of Lebanon.”

Speaker Nabih Berri called on Monday for a parliamentary session to tackle a message sent by President Michel Suleiman to the parliament regarding the presidential elections.

The session is set to be held on Wednesday at noon.

Kataeb party leader Amin Gemayel briefed top March 14 officials over the weekend on the results of his attempts to resolve the presidential crisis ahead of the “second stage” of his initiative, An Nahar newspaper reported on Monday.

Gemayel met with Ministers Butros Harb, Michel Pharaon and Salim al-Sayegh, and MPs Marwan Hamadeh and Dory Chamoun, in addition to March 14 general-secretariat coordinator Fares Soaid over lunch at a restaurant in Bikfaya, it said.

Speaker Nabih Berri expressed readiness to call for parliamentary session set to elect a new president ahead of Thursday if positive indications loomed regarding an agreement over the name of the candidate.

“I will also call for consecutive sessions after the constitutional deadline (to elect a new president) on May 25,” Berri told several local newspapers published on Monday.

The Change and Reform lawmakers will vote for the head of the bloc, Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun, in the fifth round of the presidential elections despite an expected final decision by al-Mustaqbal movement not to back his candidacy.

An Nahar newspaper said Monday that the MPs, who have boycotted the previous rounds of the polls, will head to parliament on Thursday and vote for Aoun to avoid the criticism of paralyzing the elections and causing a vacuum at Baabda Palace.

Kataeb Party leader Amin Gemayel expressed belief on Monday that the upcoming president should have the widest support to be able to rule, saying that he will not run for the post if he wasn't a consensual head of state.

“The March 14 alliance is seriously discussing ways to end the presidential deadlock,” Gemayel said in an interview with the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.

Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awad Asiri has denied that Riyadh's grant to the Lebanese army was targeted at Hizbullah and its allies, stressing that rapprochement between the rival parties would pave way for the election of a “made in Lebanon president.”

“Isn't the Lebanese army for all of Lebanon and the Lebanese?” he asked in an interview published on Monday.

Two residents of the Arsal border town of Arsal were released on Sunday after a three-day kidnap ordeal, state-run National News Agency reported.

“Mohammed Ghadada and Abdul Rahim al-Atrash have been freed after they were abducted Friday along with their town’s son Ali Ezzeddine at the hands of an armed group operating in Arsal’s outskirts,” NNA said.

Tensions were running high Sunday in the northern Metn area of Bourj Hammoud, in the wake of a clash that erupted Saturday between residents and a number of Kurd young men.

“Residents staged a sit-in outside the Bourj Hammoud Municipality, demanding that security be imposed in the area,” LBCI television reported.