Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has confirmed that he blamed Hizbullah for the cabinet impasse out of his keenness on the resistance and its achievements.

In a statement posted on his party’s website, the Druze leader admitted to saying that Hizbullah did not want the government to be formed and was putting Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun at the forefront.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said that his country is seeking a proper way to reduce its peacekeeping unit in Lebanon and it is discussing the issue with the concerned parties, news agencies reported.

“We intent on carrying out this decision, we will find the proper way to do it,” Frattini said.

Estonia's small Muslim community on Friday appealed to the people of Lebanon and Syria to help secure the release of seven tourists from the Baltic state kidnapped in Lebanon in March.

"We are turning to all of you to help release the tourists from Estonia, because they are as close to all of us as the members of your families are to you," Timur Seifullen and Mufti Ildar Muhamedshin, the leaders of the Estonian Islamic Congregation, said in a joint statement.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday condemned a bomb attack near the Lebanese southern city of Sidon that seriously injured two Italian peacekeepers, pledging to "bring the perpetrators to justice."

"I condemn the attack on the U.N. peacekeepers which happened today in Lebanon," Ban said in a statement. "It is all the more deplorable because today is the International Day of the United Nations Peacekeepers."

An agreement was reached Friday between the army and the Internal Security Forces under which the army became in charge of the second floor of the telecom ministry building in al-Adlieh district, state-run National News Agency reported.

“Consequently, the (OGERO Telecom mobile phone station) installations located on the floor have become in the army’s custody,” NNA added.

Six Italian peacekeepers were wounded -- two of them seriously -- along with two civilians on Friday in a roadside bomb explosion targeting a U.N. patrol along a highway near the Lebanese southern city of Sidon, officials said.

"There was an explosion late afternoon that targeted a U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) logistics convoy along the main highway near Sidon," UNIFIL spokesman Neeraj Singh told Agence France Presse.

Hizbullah condemned on Friday the incident at a Telecommunications Ministry building at Adlieh on Thursday, saying that it raises questions over whether Lebanon has official security forces or statelets independent of the state.

It said in a statement: “Yesterday’s development is an indication that Lebanon’s institutions are at risk of being emptied of their constitutional and legal elements in favor of personal interests of sides claiming to respect the state while they are actually seeking to destroy it.”

Internal Security Forces chief Ashraf Rifi stated on Friday that he won’t allow the mobile phone network in Lebanon to be transferred to the private sector except with the government’s approval.

He told LBC television: “The Security forces would be geld responsible if these stations are destroyed or stolen.”

Premier-designate Najib Miqati warned on Friday that he would take the appropriate decision to set things straight in the formation of the new government.

“I want the formation of the cabinet today more than any other day because it is an additional factor of stability,” Miqati told al-Iktissad Wal Aamal conference at the Phoenicia hotel in Beirut.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) commemorated on Friday the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, remembering colleagues who lost their lives in the line of duty and celebrating their contributions to peace.

A ceremony was held at UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura to mark the international day that is observed every year on 29 May.