March 14 general-secretariat coordinator Fares Soaid said Saturday that Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s statements dealt a blow to President Michel Suleiman’s invitation for dialogue.

Nasrallah called on Friday for the creation of an elected or appointed constituent assembly to build a strong state and end sectarian divisions. He urged Suleiman to weigh the creation of such an assembly during the National Dialogue that is set to be held at Baabda palace on June 11.

A Syrian priest was hospitalized in the eastern Lebanese city of Zahle after suffering injuries in the Syrian town of al-Qusair, in Homs province, during a gunfight between troops and rebels, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said Father Elia Mikhael Jreij, 33, was admitted to Tal Shiha hospital in Zahle to treat the gunshot wound in his left leg.

President Michel Suleiman said he hasn’t pressured al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri to respond to him on an invitation for the National Dialogue at Baabda Palace set for June 11.

In remarks to As Safir daily published Saturday, Suleiman said: “I didn’t ask him to attend the dialogue session but discussions focused on the advantages and the disadvantages of the National Dialogue.”

A meeting was held on Friday away from the media spotlight between Premier Najib Miqati, Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, the political aide of the Hizbullah leader, Hussein Khalil, and Energy Minister Jebran Bassil.

The meeting between Miqati and the three men from the March 8 majority coalition was aimed at averting a government crisis after Miqati gave an ultimatum to cabinet ministers to resolve the controversial funding of state projects by next Wednesday.

Twelve people were killed and more than 40 people were injured in renewed clashes between the Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhoods of the northern city of Tripoli, Beirut media reported on Saturday.

Among the dead were a woman and her son, killed by a rocket in the Bab al-Tebanneh district, a mostly Sunni Muslim community which supports Syria's anti-regime opposition.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Friday met with a delegation representing the families of 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims abducted in Syria on May 22, in the presence of Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour and MPs Ali Ammar and Ghazi Zoaiter.

After the meeting, Ammar said “PM Miqati and Minister Mansour briefed us about their contacts and discussions with Turkish authorities concerning the case of the Lebanese abductees in Syria.”

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday called on the abductors of the Lebanese pilgrims in Syria to “put the issue of the innocents aside” and solve their problem with Hizbullah, stressing that the Lebanese state must be in charge of security in all areas and calling for a “constituent assembly” that would “put Lebanon on the right track.”

“We have said that the abductees are Lebanese citizens and that therefore the state is responsible for their dignity and for freeing them and we are helping the state as political parties. The state and the top officials are exerting serious efforts to reach a happy ending,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech during a rally organized by Hizbullah to commemorate the 23rd death anniversary of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Abu Abdullah al-Halabi, the official spokesman for the Syrian Revolutionary Council for Aleppo and its Countryside, on Friday stressed that his council had nothing to do with a previously unknown armed group which on Thursday claimed responsibility for the May 22 abduction of 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims.

Halabi said a statement sent by the alleged abductors to Al-Jazeera television was not received by his council which learned about it from a “common mediator.”

U.N.-Arab League Special Envoy for Syria Kofi Annan on Friday said Lebanese authorities were doing everything possible to prevent arms smuggling across the border with Syria.

“We should deter arms smuggling and the Lebanese government informed me clearly that it prevents smuggling,” Annan said in a press conference at the Grand Serail following talks with Prime Minister Najib Miqati.

President Michel Suleiman held talks with Saudi King Abdullah in Jeddah on Friday, more than a week after the monarch announced his support for the National Dialogue that the Lebanese head of state had called for.

The talks were attended by the Lebanese official delegation accompanying Suleiman, including Public Works Minister Ghazi Aridi.