Lining up a new cabinet could be delayed until next week because President Michel Aoun suggested to grant specific titles to the ministers who will be given a state portfolio, which Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri said presses the need for reconsidering the distribution of ministerial portfolios, the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa daily reported.

Aoun did not in principle object to lining up a cabinet of 30 minsters, said the daily. He only suggested giving specific titles for the candidates who will be given a state portfolio to give their post some significance. A State Minister would for example become Minister of State for Presidential Affairs or Minister of State for Foreign and Financial affairs, etc.

March 14 General Secretariat Coordinator Fares Soaid criticized on Friday a Hizbullah statement, which aforesaid that proportional representation in the upcoming elections is an “obligatory path for the state rise”, and said that the country is being shaped according to the terms of Hizbullah.

“The country is taking shape under Hizbullah's conditions. The party got what it wanted at the presidential level, and it will get what it wants at the governmental level and electoral levels. We might as well hand the whole country to Hizbullah,” Soaid told al-Joumhouria daily.

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.