Speaker Nabih Berri is expected to call for a parliamentary session on April 22 to elect a new president, As Safir newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The daily quoted well-informed sources as saying that lawmakers would be invited to head to parliament on April 22 or 23 to elect a successor to President Michel Suleiman, whose six-year term ends on May 25.

Rival demonstrations were staged on Tuesday over the controversial new rent law that was recently adopted by parliament.

Members of the Follow-Up Committee of the National Conference of Tenants blocked the main street of Beirut's Hamra district, demanding that an amended version of the law be put in place.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has noted that Lebanese parties can elect a president without being affected by foreign influence, pointing out that President Michel Suleiman's recent remarks have ended his role as a national dialogue moderator.

In the second part of an interview with As Safir newspaper that will be published Tuesday, Nasrallah clarified the reasons that prompted his party to boycott the recent dialogue session, saying Suleiman's “latest stances have made him lose his role as national dialogue moderator.”

President Michel Suleiman stated on Monday that the closure of a pharmaceutical factory in Jdita in the eastern Bekaa Valley came as part of the state's keenness on the health of citizens.

On Friday, the factory was sealed with wax by the state authorities because it failed to meet the manufacturing standards.

The Lebanese army on Monday arrested two suspects and seized weapons during raids in several neighborhoods of the northern city of Tripoli as part of a security plan aimed at bringing stability to the country.

The military said in a communique that soldiers raided two arms depot in the impoverished neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen and the area of al-Baraniyeh.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Monday traveled to Switzerland on a five-day official visit, reiterating his call for the election of an “honorably” strong president.

Al-Rahi, who headed to Geneva, was accompanied by Bishop Boulos Matar and Bkirki spokesman Walid Ghayyad.

The presidential elections are unlikely to be held in Lebanon given the situations on the regional and international scenes, reported the Kuwaiti al-Anba daily on Sunday.

Diplomatic sources told the daily that the government of Prime Minister Tammam Salam is likely to assume a caretaker role and take over the duties of the president should the elections be postponed.

A group of renters in the Beirut neighborhood of Ashrafieh blocked the streets leading to Sassine Square in the area on Saturday afternoon, protesting the new rent law.

The protesters took to the streets to call for a “fair bill.”

MP Michel Murr is expected to meet with his former ally Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun “soon” after differences drew them apart five years ago, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Friday.

Murr will visit Aoun in Rabieh “very soon” to revive their alliance in the Metn district and agree on the presidential elections, the daily said.

President Michel Suleiman called on Wednesday for the election of a strong head of state, who pledges full loyalty to Lebanon.

“The new president should be strong, not weak… and consensual if possible or should belong to a certain political camp and be fully loyal to Lebanon,” Suleiman said during a ceremony at Baabda Palace.