Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat held talks recently in Paris with senior French officials, who stressed the need to stage the Lebanese Presidential elections within the constitutional time-frame, local newspapers reported on Monday.

According to al-Joumhouria newspaper, French officials briefed Jumblat, who is on a private visit to France, the importance of electing a strong president capable of facing the current challenges.

Speaker Nabih Berri is expected to call for the first round of parliamentary sessions to elect a new president next week, An Nahar newspaper reported on Monday.

According to the daily, the first electoral session will be held on April 16.

Some of March 14's supporters are with Hizbullah's military intervention in Syria and the Syrian regime is “not facing the threat of collapse anymore,” Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has announced.

“We're not facing a problem with our supporters regarding our involvement in Syria. On the contrary, some of those who were hesitant have now made up their minds and decided to support our choice,” Nasrallah said in excerpts of an interview with As Safir newspaper that will be published Monday.

A list backed by the March 14 forces won the elections of the Order of Engineers and Architects of Tripoli on Sunday as the rival political camps resorted to a consensus list in Beirut to avoid a heated electoral battle.

Marios al-Baaini of the Lebanese Forces was elected as the head of the Tripoli order amid the victory of four members belonging to the al-Mustaqbal movement, the Jamaa Islamiya and the Kataeb party. An “incomplete” list backed by the March 8 forces ran in the elections, according to the National News Agency.

A number of Civil Defense volunteers on Sunday blocked several roads across Lebanon to press for the approval by parliament of a law that would turn them into full-timers.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq contacted the parliament's general secretary, expressing willingness to discuss his observations over the law, which he had asked parliament to suspend its debate during last Wednesday's session.

The Internal Security Forces on Sunday announced the arrest of nine people, after Sidon resident Wadiha al-Baidawi was killed Friday by celebratory gunfire while watching a wedding from the window of her apartment in Sidon.

The 19-year-old woman was killed after being hit by a bullet to the head, the ISF said in a statement.

The Lebanese army arrested on Sunday a number of armed Syrians in the Bekaa region of Arsal, reported Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3).

It said that a shootout broke out between the army and the five Syrians when they opened fire at an army patrol in the Wadi Hmayyed area.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi warned on Sunday against “tampering with the presidential elections,” hoping that a strong president would be elected.

He urged during his Sunday sermon Speaker Nabih Berri to hold parliamentary sessions in order to determine the characteristics of the new president.

The army kicked off on Saturday preliminary measures to begin implementing in the northern and central Bekaa a security plan similar to the one executed in the northern city of Tripoli, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

It said that the army's removal of Hizbullah checkpoints between the regions of Baalbek and al-Hermel and in Arsal is the first sign of the implementation of the plan.

The presidential elections are unlikely to be held in Lebanon given the situations on the regional and international scenes, reported the Kuwaiti al-Anba daily on Sunday.

Diplomatic sources told the daily that the government of Prime Minister Tammam Salam is likely to assume a caretaker role and take over the duties of the president should the elections be postponed.