Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni held talks on Friday with an IMF delegation, led by Martin Cerisola, where discussions focused on the technical advice the fund can provide Lebanon with in order to finalize an emergency plan, media reports said.

President Michel Aoun held talks at Baabda Palace with UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis and discussed the latest regional developments, the National News Agency reported Friday.

Lebanon is expected to start drilling offshore for oil and gas on February 27, Culture and Agriculture Minister Abbas Mortada told VDL (93.3) radio station on Friday.

During its meeting yesterday, “not only did the Cabinet approve the Kuwaiti housing loan bill, but it also discussed and gave the green light for drilling for oil at sea in bloc 4 starting Thursday,” said Mortada.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has received a phone call from ex-PM Saad Hariri, who “stressed his solidarity and rejection of today’s provocations against the PSP’s supporters,” the PSP said on Thursday.

Army troops and riot police had earlier separated between supporters of the PSP and the Free Patriotic Movement near the central bank in Hamra during an FPM-organized demo.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri arrived Thursday evening in Abu Dhabi on a two-day visit during which he will meet with Emirati officials, his office said.

He is accompanied by his adviser, former Minister Ghattas Khoury.

Lebanon’s SGBL bank on Thursday denied as “totally baseless” media reports claiming that politicians and shareholders had made transfers through the bank to foreign financial institutions in the wake of the October 17 uprising.

Angry supporters of the Progressive Socialist Party on Thursday tried to reach a demo held by the Free Patriotic Movement outside the central bank on Beirut's Hamra Street.

Army troops and riot police separated between the two groups to prevent any violence.

President Michel Aoun said Thursday that “measures will be taken to pinpoint every person’s responsibility, especially as to the transfer of sums of money in an illegal manner that aggravated the severity of the crisis.”

Aoun was speaking at the beginning of the weekly Cabinet session in Baabda.

Lebanese protesters rallied on Thursday outside headquarters of the economy ministry in Downtown Beirut to protest against uncontrolled hike in prices of consumer goods.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab held his first meeting with a delegation from the International Monetary Fund to assess the measures needed to rebuild Lebanon’s economy, the National News Agency reported on Thursday.