President Michel Suleiman was on Wednesday still waiting for the March 14 opposition’s stance on his invitation for the national dialogue, five days before Lebanon’s top officials meet at Baabda palace to resolve the country’s lingering problems.

In remarks to As Safir daily, Suleiman said he hasn’t yet received a final answer from the opposition on its participation in the all-party talks. “But I believe it is not in the interest of any side not to participate in the dialogue or to obstruct it.”

Contacts are ongoing with the different factions in Tripoli to maintain calm in the northern city and to halt any security violations by any side, al-Liwaa newspaper reported.

According to the daily, officials are continuing their efforts to preserve stability in Tripoli, urging Arab Democratic Party official Rifaat Eid, who leads the mainly Alawite neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen, and several leaders of the rival neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh, not to slip over into new clashes.

Lebanon was able to restore 530 square kilometers of a maritime zone that it considers it to be within its Exclusive Economic Zone, As Safir newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Lebanon and Israel are bickering over a zone that consists of about 854 square kilometers and suspected energy reserves there could generate billions of dollars.

The cabinet will approve a draft-law to legalize the controversial extra-budgetary spending during its session on Thursday, President Michel Suleiman announced.

In remarks to As Safir daily on Wednesday, Suleiman said the government will resolve the dispute on the spending through legal ways and will not resort to a political settlement.

President Michel Suleiman stressed Tuesday the necessity of resorting to dialogue, as the only way “to agree on the integrity of national security, the thing that would remove the weapons of civil strife”.

In a speech marking the World Environment Day, Suleiman said that “economic progress is a main condition to achieve development, modernization and state authority.”

The wives and daughters of Lebanese Shiite pilgrims kidnapped in northern Syria identified two of the kidnappers on Tuesday after seeing them in a report about the Free Syrian Army on television.

LBCI reported that several women, part of a group of pilgrims kidnapped in Syria and released without their male relatives, contacted it after seeing their kidnappers’ faces on a Monday broadcast.

The lead legal representative and the two co-legal representatives designated by the Registrar of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to represent the victims of the February 14, 2005 attack have been sworn in, the STL announced in a statement issued on Tuesday.

The three legal representatives will represent the 58 people who were granted the right to participate as victims in the proceedings by the Pre-Trial judge.

Exchange of gunfire renewed on Tuesday between the rival Tripoli districts of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen, as the army threatened an “unprecedented response” against anyone who violates the fragile ceasefire.

Army troops fired back at the sources of gunfire, as state-run National News Agency said no gunmen were visible on Bab al-Tabbaneh’s streets.

The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc said Tuesday that “discussions with allies in the March 14 camp are being held to reach a rescue initiative that saves Lebanon,” warning that Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s call for a constituent assembly is aimed at changing the constitution with the power of arms.

The bloc issued a statement after its weekly meeting at Center House, headed by former Prime Minister MP Fouad Saniora, pointing out that it will be announcing the initiative in the coming days to be examined by President Michel Suleiman before resuming national dialogue on June 11.

Relatives of 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims abducted in Syria blocked Tuesday the airport road for around an hour, with some protesters describing the move as a “first warning” to Lebanese authorities.

Some of the protesters sat down in the middle of the street while no burning of tires was reported. Al-Jadeed television quoted protesters as saying that “the airport road will be totally blocked on Wednesday and Thursday as a first warning.”