Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil has discussed with his Saudi counterpart Prince Saud al-Faisal the presidential deadlock as al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri intensified his meetings to avoid a vacuum, An Nahar daily reported on Wednesday.

The newspaper said that Bassil held long discussions with al-Faisal on Tuesday, which required him to stay another day in Riyadh.

Speaker Nabih Berri has said that a parliamentary session on the public sector wage scale would be held after May 25 if MPs failed on Wednesday to approve the hike.

Berri told several local dailies that lawmakers will discuss each clause of the pay raise draft-law, which was amended by a ministerial-parliamentary committee, on Wednesday morning and in the afternoon session.

U.S. Ambassador David Hale welcomed a proposal for a constitutional amendment to keep President Michel Suleiman in his post after the expiry of his six-year term on May 25, March 14 alliance officials said.

Hale made his stance during a luncheon thrown by March 14 General-Secretariat Coordinator Fares Soaid, the officials told al-Mustaqbal newspaper published on Wednesday.

President Michel Suleiman denied on Tuesday that he has anything to do with suggested proposals to extend his presidential term, adding that he was looking forward to May 25 when his time in office ends.

"Sunday, May 25, is another day that I haven't witnessed anything like in 47 years,” Suleiman said on Twitter.

The Change and Reform bloc of MP Michel Aoun announced on Tuesday its rejection of any extension of President Michel Suleiman's term, saying that it would be fatal to democracy in Lebanon.

MP Ibrahim Kanaan said after the bloc's weekly meeting: “We will appeal such a decision and follow through with it to the end.”

Kataeb Party leader Amin Gemayel held talks on Tuesday with outgoing President Michel Suleiman at the Baabda Palace.

He left the Baabda Palace without making any statement.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat is expected to host this week outgoing President Michel Suleiman and Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in the Shouf, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported.

According to the daily, Suleiman will chair on Friday a cabinet session and visit later on the Shouf town of Moukhtara to attend a banquet hosted by Jumblat to head the final reconciliation meeting in the village of Brih.

The International Support Group for Lebanon has urged Lebanon to hold the presidential elections on time and free of foreign meddling, the U.N. announced on Monday.

Speaking to the press after meeting with Speaker Nabih Berri on Monday, U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly said that “the presidential election process is now entering a crucial phase, with less than two weeks remaining until May 25” when President Michel Suleiman's six-year term expires.

The controversial debate over extending the term of President Michel Suleiman created further rift among the political arch-foes as Bkirki denied that Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi proposed the matter.

“The Patriarch merely proposed an idea to avert any vacuum” at the helm of the country's top Christian post, Bkirki spokesperson Walid Ghayad said in comments published in al-Mustaqbal newspaper on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam has expressed surprise at warnings against a vacuum in the presidency, saying there would be only a vacant seat at Baabda Palace if parliament failed to elect a new head of state.

In remarks to As Safir daily published on Tuesday, Salam said: “There is no such thing called vacuum … There is a vacancy in a certain post.”