Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Michael Bogdanov is scheduled to arrive in Lebanon on Wednesday on a visit where he is set to meet with a number of Lebanese officials.

He is expected to meet with President Michel Suleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati, and Premier-designate Tammam Salam, as well as March 8 and 14 camp officials.

Speaker Nabih Berri denied on Friday that the March 8 alliance is linking the formation of the government with the drafting of the new electoral law, urging Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam to discuss with all the major political parties the distribution of the portfolios.

“Achieving any progress in the formation of the government will have a positive impact on us and would facilitate reaching an agreement on the electoral law and vice versa,” Berri said in comments to newspapers.

An electoral subcommittee will hold talks next Tuesday, its third meeting since it resumed sessions earlier in the week in a last-ditch effort to agree on a controversial vote law that has kept the rival parties in a “vicious cycle.”

During Thursday's meeting, Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan proposed a chart that is seen as a practical measure to bring viewpoints closer, the subcommittee chairman, lawmaker Robert Ghanem, said.

Speaker Nabih Berri totally rejected on Thursday the formation of a technocrat government, stressing that the Taef accord states that this kind of cabinets is no longer applicable.

“Are there any technocrat or impartial people in the country?” Berri wondered in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

Lebanese Democratic Party leader MP Talal Arslan on Wednesday noted that political consensus is inevitable in Lebanon, stressing that no political party can twist the arms of its rivals in Lebanese politics.

"The electoral law has nothing to do with the shape and mission of the (new) cabinet. We have said that they are two separate things, but the electoral law requires consensus among the Lebanese and so does the cabinet," Arslan said after meeting with Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain al-Tineh.

Speaker Nabih Berri reiterated on Wednesday his support to any electoral law that “enjoys the agreement of all Lebanese.”

He stressed however the need to reach this agreement within a month.

Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam stated on Tuesday that he is keen on preserving the “positive and optimistic” conditions that prevailed in Lebanon after his appointment to his position.

He said: “I do not support being hasty in forming a new government, but the process should not be slow either because the country needs a cabinet.”

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel warned on Monday that Lebanon can no longer support the Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

He said during a press conference after the party's weekly politburo meeting: “The refugees have become a threat to the country's national fabric.”

Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam has reportedly proposed to President Michel Suleiman a 14-member cabinet that was strongly criticized by Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat for being a “civil war plan.”

Al-Akhbar newspaper quoted sources as saying that Salam made the proposal during a meeting they held at Baabda palace last week. But when the president informed Jumblat about it, the PSP chief replied: “This is a civil war plan.”

The March 8 camp will continue to facilitate Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam's mission to form a new government amid an agreement being allegedly reached between its members, reported various media outlets on Saturday.

As Safir newspaper said that a meeting had taken place Friday morning between the Hizbullah leader's aide Hussein Khalil, Speaker Nabih Berri's political aide caretaker Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, and Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun's aide caretaker Minister Jebran Bassil during which they agree on core issues over the new government that they will not waiver on.