U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman held talks on Wednesday with Speaker Nabih Berri, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, Maronite Archbishop of Beirut Boulos Matar and a number of officials, a day after arriving in Beirut on a two-day visit.

He expressed during his talks “the United States’ steadfast support for pluralistic and democratic governments in the region that protect the rights of all citizens, including ethnic and religious minorities,” announced the U.S. Embassy in a statement.

Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman arrived in Lebanon on Tuesday for talks with Lebanese leaders.

Feltman is accompanied by a U.S. delegation comprising top Senator Joe Lieberman, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee and also sits on the Armed Services Committee. Lieberman met in Riyadh Monday with Saudi King Abdullah and other senior officials as part of a Middle East tour to discuss the Syria crisis, his office said.

Finance Minister Mohammed al-Safadi presented on Monday a draft law on the government extra-budgetary spending bill to the cabinet general secretariat.

The draft law should be presented before cabinet, but sources close to the Grand Serail ruled out the possibility that it would be discussed during Wednesday’s session.

President Michel Suleiman telephoned on Monday Syrian President Bashar Assad, reported As Safir newspaper on Tuesday.

Sources did not reveal to the newspaper the details of the talks, but said that they focused on the crisis in Syria.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat questioned on Monday the insistence to adopt proportional representation in the parliamentary electoral law.

He noted in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine: “Such a law will, in one way or another, help reproduce the era of hegemony in Lebanon, which will therefore be rejected by all the Lebanese people.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton telephoned on Monday President Michel Suleiman to praise his speech at the Arab League summit that was held in Baghdad in late March.

She lauded his call to implement democracy in political practice and expressed her country’s support to such an end.

Finance Minister Mohammed Safadi warned on Monday that the extra-budgetary spending has become a “heavy burden” on the ruling March 8 majority.

“Each spending made currently is illegal,” he said in reference to the law, which says that the government can’t allocate funds that exceed the last state budget of 2005.

The latest virtual dispute between President Michel Suleiman and Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun was the result of growing differences on the appointments of civil servants and the pressure exerted on the president to sign a $5.9 billion extra-budgetary spending bill, an informed source said.

Suleiman and Aoun accused each other of being political beggars after the FPM leader rejected a consensual president and said on his party’s Facebook page that the future president should lead a parliamentary bloc rather than beg at the door of some ministers.

Premier Najib Miqati has stressed that Lebanon’s sovereignty and security are priorities and cannot be sidestepped for the purpose of helping all Syrian refugees escaping the violence in their country.

Miqati told reporters who accompanied him to Brussels that Belgian and European Union officials asked him to provide assistance not only to the displaced Syrians in northern Lebanon but also to those in the eastern Bekaa valley.

President Michel Suleiman hailed on Saturday the interception of a ship suspected of delivering weapons to Syria as the Lebanese army issued a statement confirming the incident.

“The army intercepted on Friday Sierra Leone-flagged Lutfallah II ship suspected of carrying weapons and ammunition to Syria,” the statement said.