A group of nuns abducted from the Syrian town of Maalula in December were released on Sunday evening and handed over to a Lebanese General Security delegation in the outskirts of the Bekaa border town of Arsal.

"The Maalula nuns have been freed and they are now in our custody," General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim told LBCI television.

The international community views President Michel Suleiman as a factor that contributes to Lebanon's stability and security given the critical regional situation, reported the Kuwaiti al-Anba daily on Sunday.

To that end, the international community will likely advocate that his term be extended in order to preserve this stability and avoid any political vacuum in Lebanon, said a source informed with the discussions that took place at the International Support Group meeting on Lebanon that was held on Wednesday.

The ongoing dispute over the government's policy statement may force Prime Minister Tammam Salam to refer each of the March 8 and 14 camp's respective drafts to a vote at cabinet, reported the Kuwaiti daily al-Anba on Sunday.

Hizbullah will however reject such a move because of the likelihood that the March 14 proposal will be adopted seeing as the alliance enjoys a greater number of ministers.

Maronite Patriarch Bashara al-Rahi on Saturday voiced his support to President Michel Suleiman's effort “in preserving unity and stability in the country.”

"We support everything the president is doing to preserve unity and stability in Lebanon and we praise what he achieved in Paris during the international conference on Lebanon,” al-Rahi said after meeting with Suleiman at Baabda Palace.

President Michel Suleiman stressed on Saturday that the Baabda declaration reflects the aspirations of the Lebanese, calling on the arch-foes to ink the cabinet's policy statement based on the consensus of its formation.

“The state is the only guarantee for national unity and history has proved that we are strong when we have agreement on the broad national issues,” Suleiman said in a speech during the opening of Lebanese Economic Forum at the Four Seasons Hotel in Biel.

Ties between President Michel Suleiman and Hizbullah reached a standstill as efforts exerted by officials to end the ongoing dispute didn't make any breakthrough.

A source close to Hizbullah told al-Liwaa newspaper, published on Saturday, that “the resistance will not accept anything less than an apology in order to reconsider rectifying the ties with Suleiman.”

Speaker Nabih Berri has reiterated that he would facilitate the adoption of the government's policy statement if the March 14 alliance showed some leniency amid a lack of optimism on the ability of a seven-member committee to reach a deal on the blueprint on Friday despite efforts to find a compromise on the controversial issue of the resistance.

“There is so far nothing tangible,” several officials, who visited Berri on Thursday, quoted him as saying.

President Michel Suleiman reiterated on Thursday that the Baabda Declaration holds greater political significance than the new government's policy statement.

He told reporters in Paris: “A flexible phrasing of the statement will be drafted in order to resolve the dispute over the resistance.”

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc reiterated on Thursday that the Baabda Declaration should be part of the cabinet's policy statement and denied “assumptions” that the March 14 alliance was rejecting a clause on the resistance of Hizbullah against Israel.

Following its meeting under MP Fouad Saniora, the bloc slammed “claims” and “untrue assumptions” made by some March 8 camp officials that March 14 was rejecting to put the “concept of resistance against the Israeli enemy in the policy statement.”

An agreement on the names of two candidates for the presidential elections is among many proposals set to be discussed during a planned meeting between the country's top four Maronite leaders, Bkirki spokesman Walid Ghayyad said Thursday.

Ghayyad told Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) that no date has yet been set for the meeting between Phalange leader Amin Gemayel, Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea and the head of Marada movement, Suleiman Franjieh.