Speaker Nabih Berri kicked off last week efforts to persuade the Mustaqbal Movement and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat to agree on a new parliamentary electoral law, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

Sources following the speaker's efforts said that Berri was “adamant in his position that there can be no substitute to proportional representation” in the electoral law.

Speaker Nabih Berri said Saturday that a meeting he has held with al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc leader Fouad Saniora needs “follow up” after they did not reach consensus on an electoral draft-law.

The meeting was “honest and transparent, and needs follow up,” Berri told An Nahar newspaper.

The Central Security Council convened at the Serail of the northern city of Tripoli on Friday after the attack on Youth and Sports Minister Faisal Karami's convoy.

A statement issued by the Prime Minister's office said Najib Miqati asked Interior Minister Marwan Charbel to chair the “emergency meeting to take the appropriate measures.”

A meeting held between Speaker Nabih Berri and the head of al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc Fouad Saniora will likely facilitate an agreement among rival lawmakers on the controversial electoral draft-law, media reports said Friday.

An Nahar daily quoted informed sources as saying that talks between Berri and Saniora at the head of a delegation from al-Mustaqbal could clarify the common ground between the March 8 majority alliance and the March 14 opposition alliance on the draft-law.

Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on Wednesday the need to hold the parliamentary elections on time.

His visitors quoted him as saying he is “monitoring the meetings of the electoral subcommittee and hopes that the efforts would lead to an agreement on a new law that would ensure that the elections are held as scheduled.”

The electoral subcommittee suspended on Wednesday its meetings in order to allow political factions to hold consultations on a draft law that combines two election systems.

Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan announced: “The electoral subcommittee will resume meetings on Monday to allow for consultations on the proposal that combines the winner-takes-all and proportional representation systems.”

Speaker Nabih Berri was more optimistic on Wednesday on the ability of rival lawmakers in striking a deal, saying they had good intentions to reach common ground on an electoral draft-law.

“I felt that all sides represented in the parliamentary subcommittee have expressed readiness to reach consensus on a draft-law,” Berri told local newspapers after he received the minutes of the subcommittee that discussed the electoral draft-laws and the number of MPs in the first phase of consultations.

Several proposals made by rival lawmakers during a meeting of a parliamentary subcommittee on Tuesday are likely to delay agreement on an electoral draft-law.

“We continued discussions on all draft-laws and new proposals made by MPs,” said the chairman of the nine-member subcommittee, MP Robert Ghanem, on the first round of the second phase of talks aimed at reaching consensus on an electoral draft-law.

Speaker Nabih Berri is keen to bridge the gap between the political foes and find common ground over the electoral law that will be adopted during the upcoming parliamentary elections, according to local newspapers published on Tuesday.

“The worst electoral law that we reach consensus over is better than the best electoral law that has sharp rift over,” Berri pointed out.

Speaker Nabih Berri shied away on Monday from revealing what steps he would take if a parliamentary subcommittee failed to agree on common ground on an electoral draft-law.

In remarks to local newspapers, Berri said he will study the minutes of the meetings of the subcommittee which is scheduled to convene on Monday afternoon.