Premier-designate Najib Miqati was reportedly readying a cabinet lineup had Hizbullah agreed to name its ministers but the Shiite group stressed that a solution to the bickering between President Michel Suleiman and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun should be found before making that step.

As Safir daily said Wednesday that Hizbullah’s stance was seen as a covert support for Aoun who is demanding the interior ministry portfolio as part of his share in the new government. But Suleiman is adamant on keeping the ministry which is headed by Ziad Baroud in the caretaker cabinet.

Caretaker Foreign Minister Ali al-Shami’s latest instructions to Lebanon’s ambassador to the U.N. drew the ire of the March 14 forces that accused him of overstepping President Michel Suleiman and Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri.

Al-Shami instructed Ambassador Nawaf Salam on Tuesday not to approve a draft Security Council statement criticizing Syria for its crackdown on anti-regime protesters.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati on Tuesday held talks with President Michel Suleiman at the Baabda Palace away from the media spotlight, state-run National News Agency reported.

Talks tackled "the latest developments concerning the cabinet formation process in light of the ongoing consultations and contacts," NNA added.

President Michel Suleiman noted on Tuesday that the current situation in Lebanon and the region “require the Lebanese to protect the internal scene from the negative repercussions of these external developments.”

He stressed the need to resort to dialogue as the way to end disputes among the Lebanese under the umbrella of the constitution and laws “that ensure Lebanon’s interests.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun noted on Tuesday that it appears that there is no intention to form a new government in Lebanon because the reasons attributed to the delay in its formation “are not binding.”

He rejected after the movement’s weekly meeting the violation of the constitution by any side regarding the formation process and distribution of portfolios, especially the Interior Ministry.

Following demands by Dar al-Fatwa, Lebanon's highest Sunni authority, for the removal of an illegal building built on Sunni Waqf (endowment) property in the Beirut southern suburb of al-Ouzai, AMAL Movement said it managed to convince the residents of removing the violation.

"Following reports about a construction violation in the al-Ouzai area, AMAL Movement made contacts and efforts with the residents, which led to removing the violation," the movement said in a statement.

The cabinet is not likely to be formed anytime soon, sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat after Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun insisted on naming the neutral personality who would lead the interior ministry.

The sources told al-Hayat in remarks published Sunday that both Aoun and President Michel Suleiman, who are at loggerheads over the portfolio, had agreed on giving the ministry to a neutral personality.

President Michel Suleiman denied on Sunday that there were foreign obstacles to the cabinet formation process, saying the deadlock was over local “demands.”

“There are no foreign pitfalls,” Suleiman told reporters in Bkirki after meeting with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi. The impasse lies on the “demands of parliamentary blocs” and “not obstacles,” he said.

Najib Miqati’s press office denied on Wednesday that the Premier-designate’s brother went to Damascus the day before to set the stage for a visit by Miqati and President Michel Suleiman to the Syrian capital.

The press office said in a statement that the report about a visit by Taha Miqati to prepare for a meeting that the prime minister-designate and the president would hold with Syrian President Bashar Assad was “untrue.’

Premier-designate Najib Miqati held talks with President Michel Suleiman at Baabda Palace on Wednesday but not did make any statement after the meeting.

Media reports said Miqati discussed with Suleiman the cabinet formation efforts. The talks came amid a continued impasse on the new government due to several obstacles, mainly Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun’s bickering with Suleiman over the interior ministry portfolio.