The most difficult task facing PM-designate Saad Hariri in forming a new cabinet, is the agreement with the Lebanese Forces and Speaker Nabih Berri on the portfolios that will be allotted to their parties, As Safir daily reported on Wednesday.

Prominent Free Patriotic Movement sources told the daily that whenever an agreement was reached with the LF and Berri on their share in the government, “and when that happens, the General (President Michel Aoun) will facilitate Hariri's mission to complete the construction of the government because it is in the interest of the new term to accelerate the formation so it does not lose the presidential elections glow.”

The army thwarted an infiltration attempt by militants from the Syrian side into the outskirts of a town close to al-Khraybeh in the Bekaa region, the state-run National News Agency reported on Wednesday.

The army was able to obstruct a group of militants after they tried to infiltrate into the outskirts of Jenta, other media reports said.

The Lebanese Forces stressed that they are not putting “crippling demands” on the government formation when they request to be given important ministerial portfolios, As Safir daily reported on Wednesday.

“Claims to be given essential portfolios in the new government does mean that the Lebanese Forces are setting crippling conditions and demands,” LF sources told As Safir daily on Wednesday.

Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji stressed that the army's resilience and its ability to protect stability has paved the way for ending the vacuum at Lebanon's top state post, the National News Agency reported on Monday.

“The performance of the army has contributed to safeguard the state's institutions of decay and collapse, an in safeguarding national stability which paved way for filling the longtime presidential vacuum by electing General Michel Aoun as President of the Republic,” said Qahwaji during a dinner banquet held in his honor.

Newly elected President Michel Aoun received at the Presidential Palace on Monday envoy of Syrian President and Minister of Presidential Affairs Mansour Azzam, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The envoy was accompanied by Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali, it added.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri concluded the second and final day of non-binding consultations with lawmakers on Saturday to form a new cabinet.

He first met with the Syrian Social Nationalist Party. After the meeting leader of the SSNP said: “The government's priority must go to the social and economic issues and to meet the needs of the citizens to encourage them to stay in their country. Reform begins with stipulating an election law that does justice to the Lebanese.

Speaker Nabih Berri has warned PM-designate Saad Hariri that the Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea plans to keep the Kataeb party and Marada Movement out of the new government formula, al-Akhbar daily reported on Saturday.

The daily said that Geagea is trying to limit the Christian representation in the new cabinet to his LF ministers.

Among the ongoing consultations to form a new government after the designation of PM Saad Hariri, there is a tendency to form an all-inclusive 30-minister government instead of the usual 24, to pave way for the representation of all political parties, An Nahar daily reported on Saturday.

Sources following up closely on the consultations said there is “semi-final trend to form a government of thirty ministers to include a broader political participation,” which will be formed under the banner of “consensus and national unity.”

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri began on Friday consultations with the parliamentarians, which will continue over a two-day period, to form the new cabinet after being nominated to the post by 112 out of 126 members of parliament.

Hariri kicked off the consultations with a meeting with Speaker Nabih Berri at the parliament. He later held talks with caretaker Premier Tammam Salam, who said following the meeting that the “atmosphere in the country is positive and things are going in the right direction. We will have a government soon.”

Hizbullah believes that an alliance with the AMAL Movement and the unity of the Shiites ranks is more valuable than anything else, even power, As Safir daily reported on Friday.

A source close to Hizbullah told the daily that a “coalition with AMAL and the unity of the Shiites is more important than anything else, even more important than power and its gains.”