President Michel Suleiman is intensifying his efforts to resume the national dialogue in order to tackle a defense strategy for Lebanon and implement the decisions that were reached on the Resistance and Palestinians’ possession of arms, reported the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa newspaper on Saturday.

His calls for dialogue have so far been ignored by the rival March 8 and 14 camps over each side’s preconditions to hold the talks, seeing as the former refuses to discuss the Resistance’s possession of weapons, while the latter insists that it should be the sole topic of discussion.

Speaker Nabih Berri voiced his support for President Michel Suleiman’s statements on the appointments of top civil servants.

He told the daily An Nahar in remarks published on Friday that it would be difficult to make them in one haul as the president had feared.

President Michel Suleiman lauded on Thursday the government’s performance so far, despite the criticism it has come under.

He hoped that it would “make the appointments of top civil servants in gradual steps and not in one single haul.”

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon will visit Lebanon next week to meet with officials as well as members of the U.N. peacekeeping force deployed in the south of the country, a government official told Agence France Presse.

The official said Ban's three-day trip would start on January 13.

Premier Najib Miqati held talks on Tuesday with the head of the Civil Service Council, Khaled Qabbani, on the appointment of top civil servants, which had faced the obstacle of lack of political consensus among the major parties.

Qabbani stated after the meeting: “The mechanism that was approved by cabinet will determine the appointments of top civil servants.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Monday denied a media report claiming he was unconvinced with the wage hike decree proposed by Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas, who was nominated by him for the ministerial post.

“Every now and then, some media reports attribute stances to him (Aoun) or to FPM sources and they (media outlets) claim to read his intentions in order to come up with the conclusions they see fit,” Aoun’s press office said in a statement.

President Michel Suleiman praised the United Arab Emirates for embracing the Lebanese community there, the Emirates News Agency reported on Monday.

WAM quoted Suleiman as hailing the country for “embracing the largest Lebanese community that lives in a tolerant and diverse community and contributes through the expertise of its citizens and their capabilities to the development process of the UAE.”

Marada leader Suleiman Franjieh defended Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn over his statements on the presence of al-Qaida in Lebanon, saying

President Michel Suleiman and Premier Najib Miqati know that the information is true.

President Michel Suleiman is seeking to relaunch the National Dialogue at Baabda Palace to discuss the country’s defense strategy which he sees should be based on “the positive investment of the resistance weapons,” his sources said.

The sources told As Safir daily published Saturday that Suleiman met with the presidential team involved in the all-party talks to discuss what the National Dialogue has achieved and the reasons preventing the implementation of previous decisions particularly the disarmament of Palestinian bases outside the camps.

President Michel Suleiman on Friday congratulated the Lebanese on the occasion of the New Year, hoping 2012 would be a year of dialogue, understanding and stability.

In a statement issued by his press office, Suleiman hoped “2012 would bring happiness and stability for the nation and would be a year of dialogue and understanding” that would contribute to the productivity of public institutions.