Speaker Nabih Berri has reiterated that he would facilitate the adoption of the government's policy statement if the March 14 alliance showed some leniency amid a lack of optimism on the ability of a seven-member committee to reach a deal on the blueprint on Friday despite efforts to find a compromise on the controversial issue of the resistance.

“There is so far nothing tangible,” several officials, who visited Berri on Thursday, quoted him as saying.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq's remarks from Rabieh caused a stir among the March 14 allies over the rapprochement between the al-Mustaqbal movement and the Free Patriotic Movement, local newspapers reported on Friday.

According to al-Joumhouria newspaper, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and leaders affiliated in the March 14 coalition expressed ire over Mashnouq's statement, prompting al-Mustaqbal movement leader Saad Hariri to contact Geagea to explain the matter.

Two mortar shells were found Thursday in the southern town of al-Majadel and a Syrian man was arrested in connection with the incident.

“An (Internal Security Forces) Intelligence Bureau patrol found two functional 60 mm mortar shells in an agricultural field in the town of al-Majadel, southeast of the city of Tyre,” state-run National News Agency reported.

Three hand grenades were hurled in Tripoli on Thursday, prompting the army to stage patrols in the restive northern city.

“Unknown assailants tossed two hand grenades in the Baal al-Darawish area in Bab al-Tabbaneh as several volleys of machinegun fire were heard in the region,” state-run National News Agency reported.

Iraqi authorities forced a Baghdad-bound Middle East Airlines plane to turn around Thursday 20 minutes after leaving Beirut because the transport minister's son had missed the flight, MEA said.

The Airlines said the flight took off after repeatedly paging two passengers, who failed to turn up.

Hizbullah's Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc on Thursday noted that there is still a chance to reach consensus over the policy statement of the new cabinet if the wrangling parties pacify their rhetoric.

“The interest of the Lebanese lies in clinging to the equation that is the guarantee for their state and one of its most important pillars,” the bloc said in a statement issued after its periodic meeting.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam said Thursday the lack of trust among the rival parties were hindering an agreement on his government’s policy statement, adding President Michel Suleiman was not to blame.

Suleiman said last week that Lebanese parties should not hold onto inflexible equations that hinder the adoption of the policy statement.

A Syrian raid targeted on Thursday the eastern town of Khirbet Younine on the outskirts of Arsalfor the second day in a row.

According to Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) the airstrike targeted opposition gunmen in the area.

President Michel Suleiman reiterated on Thursday that the Baabda Declaration holds greater political significance than the new government's policy statement.

He told reporters in Paris: “A flexible phrasing of the statement will be drafted in order to resolve the dispute over the resistance.”

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc reiterated on Thursday that the Baabda Declaration should be part of the cabinet's policy statement and denied “assumptions” that the March 14 alliance was rejecting a clause on the resistance of Hizbullah against Israel.

Following its meeting under MP Fouad Saniora, the bloc slammed “claims” and “untrue assumptions” made by some March 8 camp officials that March 14 was rejecting to put the “concept of resistance against the Israeli enemy in the policy statement.”