AMAL Movement MP Qassem Hashem announced on Thursday that contacts have intensified in order to form a new cabinet before the holidays and denied claims that the process has lapsed .

“Discussions and contacts have intensified to speed up the formation of the government before the holidays. The deliberations did not go back to square one because it's in no one's interest to put obstacles in front of its formation,” said Hashem in an interview to VDL 93.3.

Democratic Gathering parliamentary bloc leader MP Walid Jumblat voiced calls on Wednesday to form a cabinet of 30 ministers in order to represent all political factions in the new government.

“The best way to get a ministry is to return to the the old formula with a balanced share for the Marada Movement and the Lebanese Forces,” said Jumblat in a tweet.

Speaker Nabih Berri declared that there are no justifiable reasons to delay the formation of the cabinet any further now that all political parties have taken their share in the new cabinet, al-Joumhouria daily reported Wednesday.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Anne Patterson on Tuesday relayed a message to President Michel Aoun from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, in which she expressed Washington's readiness to maintain its support for Lebanon to enable it to face the expected challenges, Lebanon's National News Agency reported.

As part of an initiative launched by the Change and Reform bloc to separate the cabinet formation process from an agreement on a new electoral law, a delegation of the bloc visited the Kataeb party on Tuesday and talks focused on devising a law for the upcoming parliamentary elections, the National News Agency reported.

The Change and Reform bloc, comprising MPs Neemtallah Abi Nasr and Ibrahim Kanaan met with Kataeb party leader MP Sami Gemayel, in presence of lawmakers Nadim Gemayel and Samer Saade.

A new born baby was found on Tuesday in a garbage sorting plant in the southern city of Sidon, the National News Agency reported.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim deemed the election of President Michel Aoun as an essential milestone to restore the regularity of the constitutional institutions in Lebanon, stressing the World Bank Group's constant commitment towards the Lebanese state, the National News Agency reported.

Kim also expressed aspirations to support Aoun in building a resilient and flexible economy which would lead to the revival of Lebanon and its development.

Despite the promising atmospheres that prevailed on Monday indicating easing of differences obstructing the formation of a cabinet, Lebanese Forces MP Fadi Karam stated on Tuesday that the party still insists to be given the controversial portfolio of public works, fading hopes of a soon cabinet line-up.

In an interview to VDL (93.3) Karam unveiled an initiative to facilitate the government formation that was launched following the recent speech of Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah between the LF, Free Patriotic Movement and al-Mustaqbal Movement without disclosing the details.

DNA tests from the relatives of the abducted servicemen will be compared with DNA retrieved from several corpses found by the Syrian army in one of the areas liberated from the Islamic State group control in Syria, media reports said Tuesday.

A security source told al-Akhbar daily that DNA samples were received from the families of the servicemen, abducted by the IS in Arsal in 2014, and will be sent to Syria to be compared with unidentified bodies believed to belong to the soldiers.

Media reports said that parties are mulling calls to hold a spiritual Christian-Islamic summit with the aim of backing President Michel Aoun and the new tenure, in order to provide atmospheres appropriate for the new government to function properly, the Kuwaiti As-Seyasah daily reported Monday.