Al-Mustaqbal bloc leader Fouad Saniora visited caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Thursday night, culminating a round of talks he held with the country's top officials following his return from Paris.

Saniora's meetings started on Thursday with President Michel Suleiman as part of a delegation from the southern city of Sidon. He then held talks at his residence with Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel.

Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam held talks in Paris on Thursday with former Premier Saad Hariri, reported Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5).

It said that the discussions focused on the efforts to form a new government.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri hoped on Tuesday that the residents of Tripoli would cooperate with the army and security forces in their deployment in the northern city as they attempt to restore calm there.

He said in a statement: “The state should not hesitate in providing all elements that will place Tripoli's security under the rule of the law.”

Speaker Nabih Berri has rejected accusations by al-Mustaqbal bloc leader Fouad Saniora that he was seeking to impose the rule of the parliament on the rest of top institutions in Lebanon, saying he would not allow anyone to paralyze the functions of the legislature.

“It is not natural and it is unacceptable for the legislative authority to become the captive of the mood of the prime minister no matter who he is,” Berri told As Safir newspaper published on Tuesday.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri held talks with several March 14 figures in the French capital to discuss ways to resolve the local crises, however, he will not meet with PM-designate Tammam Salam.

A source denied in comments published in al-Liwaa newspaper on Tuesday that a meeting will be held between Hariri and Salam, who is currently in Geneva on a private visit.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Monday criticized remarks voiced by former premier Saad Hariri and Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea over the deadly clashes in Tripoli, stressing that fighting between the rival districts of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen cannot “change the course of the bloody developments in Syria.”

“There are some strange self-contradictory stances, as some are urging the cabinet to convene to remove arms from Tripoli while refusing its convention over other matters or the convention of parliament under the excuse that it is a caretaker cabinet! And some are in some way or another holding the Lebanese army responsible for what's happening in Tripoli, while what's needed more than ever is support for the military institution,” Jumblat said in his weekly editorial in al-Anbaa newspaper, referring to Geagea and Hariri.

Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam is expected to visit the French capital, Paris, where he will hold talks with ex-Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

According to An Nahar newspaper published on Monday, Salam is expected to tackle with Hariri the cabinet formation process.

Al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri accused Syrian President Bashar Assad of being the mastermind of all crimes in Lebanon, and held the state responsible for the deteriorating security situation in the northern city of Tripoli.

In a statement issued by his press office, Hariri said it was “useless” to find ways to resolve the cabinet crisis, or hold a parliamentary session or resume the national dialogue after Tripoli has come under attack in a “suspicions war.”

Al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri is holding large-scale talks with top officials from the March 14 alliance in Paris, An Nahar daily reported on Saturday.

Among those who have already arrived in the French capital are MPs Marwan Hamadeh and Butros Harb, and former lawmakers Samir Franjieh and Fares Soaid, who is also the March 14 general-secretariat coordinator, the newspaper said.

Former Premier Saad Hariri on Friday compared “the wound” caused by the 2012 assassination of Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan to the wound caused by the assassination of his father, ex-prime minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.

“We have always called for justice and for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon regarding the assassination of Premier Rafik Hariri, and now we have the same demands regarding the assassination of Brigadier General al-Hasan,” the slain commander of the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau.