At least 40 people were killed in an ammunitions depot blast Thursday in a government-held area of Homs in central Syria apparently triggered by rebel rocket fire, a monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which earlier reported 22 killed, warned that the death toll could rise further as many of the 100 people wounded were in serious condition.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday announced that he intends to form a “national front” to defend the constitution and prevent “the disintegration of the state,” describing the mechanism devised to extend the term of Army chief General Jean Qahwaji as “illegitimate.”

“We want to immunize the military institution against those who want to tamper with its hierarchy and are issuing edicts that are harming the military hierarchy and manipulating the law,” said Aoun after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Friday vowed that the LF will continue to search for the Lebanese detainees who “went missing” in Syrian prisons, noting that “there are millions of captives in Lebanon" and accusing Hizbullah of putting the fate of the Lebanese people in danger.

“The detainees in the prisons of the Syrian regime were used for political ends and I ask everyone to be confident that we will carry on with our efforts to release them,” Geagea said at a seminar in Maarab on the Lebanese detainees in Syrian prisons.

The European Union's decision to blacklist Hizbullah's armed wing means it would share responsibility for any Israeli attack against Lebanon or the party, Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Wednesday.

"These (European) states have made themselves fully responsible for any Israeli attack on Lebanon or Lebanon's resistance (Hizbullah) or any target of the resistance," Nasrallah said in a televised speech during an iftar banquet organized by the Women's Committee of the Islamic Resistance Support Association.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday said the EU's decision to blacklist Hizbullah's so-called armed wing was “based on false accusations,” noting that Lebanon has been suffering from "the wars waged by some of your countries in Syria."

“Today, I will limit my statement to one topic. I will send a message to the EU which has put Hizbullah's armed wing on the terror list,” said Aoun after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform bloc.

Hizbullah on Monday described the European Union’s decision to blacklist its military wing as a “hostile and unjust” step, saying it was “written by American hands and with Zionist ink.”

"Hizbullah firmly rejects the EU decision... and sees it as a hostile and unjust decision that has no justification and is not based on any proof," the party said in a statement.

Al-Nusra Front leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani on Monday hit out at Hizbullah for its intervention in the Syrian conflict.

In an audio recording entitled: "The Coming Days are Better Than Those of the Past,” the Nusra leader warned “Shiites in Lebanon not to allow Hizbullah to drag them into a proxy war in Syria on behalf of its Iranian backers.”

Hizbullah-run Al-Manar television accused the European Union on Monday of bowing to Israeli demands in blacklisting the party's armed wing.

"The European Union has surrendered to the wishes of Israel in adding Hizbullah to its blacklist," the television said.

President Michel Suleiman is scheduled to leave Lebanon within the next few hours on a previously unannounced foreign trip, highly informed sources told Naharnet on Monday.

According to the obtained information, Suleiman's final destination will be the United States, "although he will make a stop at one of the European capitals."

President Michel Suleiman on Monday hoped the European Union will “reconsider” its decision to blacklist Hizbullah's military wing as caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed Lebanon's respect for international legitimacy.

Suleiman hoped the EU “will reconsider its decision, out of keenness on avoiding hasty decisions and to preserve stability in Lebanon and protect the essential choices that are being discussed by the national dialogue committee, which are mainly about the stipulations of the Baabda Declaration and the president's vision for the national defense strategy.”