U.S. diplomat David Hale reportedly discussed during his visit to Lebanon last week with caretaker foreign Minister Jebran Bassil the possibility of a “prisoner swap” to free Lebanese-American ex-Israeli collaborator Amer Fakhoury in return for a Hizbullah "financier", reports said.

Hale and Bassil held a “lengthy meeting” at the latter’s residence in al-Bayyada on Saturday.

U.S. Diplomat David Hale reportedly told officials in Lebanon that his country is to withhold aid to the economic-stricken country if Hizbullah gets ministerial seats or indirectly controls the new government, Nidaa al-Watan daily reported on Monday.

The Italian Foreign Minister arrived in Beirut on an official visit, the Italian embassy in Beirut said on Monday.

Luigi Di met with his Lebanese counterpart caretaker Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil and discussed the relations between Italy and Lebanon, and the latest developments in the Middle East, the National News Agency said.

Scuffles erupted Sunday after army troops at the al-Madfoun checkpoint stopped buses carrying protesters from the northern city of Tripoli.

The protesters were heading to a central demo in Beirut dubbed “Sunday of Rejection”, which comes after Hassan Diab was named PM-designate.

Anti-government protesters on Sunday rallied outside the house of PM-designate Hassan Diab to denounce his meeting with a number of figures claiming to represent the protest movement that emerged after October 17.

The head of the so-called Lebanese Media Bank, Mohammed Noun, said he met with Diab in his personal capacity, calling for “cooperation and dialogue with the PM-designate in order to rescue the situation” and describing Diab as an “independent figure.”

The appointment of ex-minister Hassan Diab as premier-designate has put an end to Washington’s perceived attempt to “exploit” the crisis and the protests in Lebanon, a senior Hizbullah official said on Sunday.

Warning that “some are seeking to ignite strife,” Hizbullah central council member Sheikh Nabil Qaouq said “America has failed, because betting on exploiting the domestic crisis and investing in it has reached a dead end, after it tried to take advantage of the crisis to achieve political gains.”

Unknown assailants hurled a Molotov cocktail overnight at a Christmas tree that is being set up on the main street of the northern town of Sir al-Dinniyeh, the National News Agency reported on Sunday.

The attack burned the tree as the attackers fled to an unknown destination, NNA said.

The nomination of Hassab Diab for the PM post was “plan B” after all efforts to secure the return of caretaker PM Saad Hariri failed, an MP of Speaker Nabih Berri’s bloc said on Sunday.

“Most of the protest movement’s groups have decided to give the PM-designate a chance to form his government in a manner that satisfies protesters on the streets,” MP Fadi Alameh of the Development and Liberation bloc said in a radio interview.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday urged protesters in all regions not to block the main roads during the holiday season.

“What we witnessed two days ago, when the Lebanese Army and security forces were pelted with stones during a protest, violates the dignity of the army and the dignity of citizens who believe in the Lebanese state,” al-Rahi lamented in his Sunday Mass sermon, referring to a protest by al-Mustaqbal Movement supporters against the appointment of Hassan Diab as PM-designate.

Prime Minister-designate Hassan Diab held consultations Saturday with parliamentary blocs in which they discussed the shape of the future government and said afterward that legislators all had one concern: To get the country out of its "strangling" economic crisis.

Diab, a university professor and former education minister, will have to steer Lebanon out of its worst economic and financial crisis in decades. He's also taking office against the backdrop of ongoing nationwide protests against the country's ruling elite.