The cabinet convened at the Baabda Palace failed on Monday to refer the new wage scale to the parliament despite warnings by the Syndicate Coordination Committee to stage yet another strike to protest the government procrastination.

“The cabinet decided to implement economy reforms in parallel with referring the draft law to the parliament,” Labor Minister Salim Jreissati told reporters in a briefing following the session.

The top three parties of the March 8 majority alliance have “totally rejected” holding the parliamentary polls next year based on the winner-takes-all system of the 1960 electoral law, As Safir daily reported on Monday.

The newspaper quoted sources as saying that a meeting was held between the Hizbullah leader's aide, Hussein Khalil, the assistant of Speaker Nabih Berri, Ali Hassan Khalil, Minister Jebran Bassil, who is a member of the Free Patriotic Movement, and Amal movement's security official Ahmed al-Baalbaki.

March 14 MP Marwan Hamadeh announced that officials from the camp are set to meet again in order to discuss the recent consultations held with Speaker Nabih Berri aimed at revitalizing parliament activity, reported An Nahar daily on Sunday.

He told the daily that the heads of parliamentary committees and members of the parliament bureau will meet for a second time to take a united stand on the resumption of parliamentary work.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati said on Saturday that he tackled during talks with Speaker Nabih Berri the latest developments locally, state-run National News Agency reported.

“The meeting tackled the general situation in Lebanon including the electoral law,” Miqati told reporters after meeting with Berri in Ain el-Tineh.

President Michel Suleiman told the Mufti of Tripoli and the north Sheikh Malek al-Shaar on Friday that he is following up on the alleged threats the clergyman is receiving and that made him decide to extend his stay in Europe.

"I have been contacted by several officials advising me not to return to Lebanon,” al-Shaar told the Central News Agency, revealing that among the callers was Interior Minister Marwan Charbel.

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel voiced on Friday his opposition to the postponement of the parliamentary elections “regardless of the excuse," reported Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5).

He said after holding talks with Speaker Nabih Berri: “We support the resumption of parliamentary committee meetings as soon as possible in order to approve a fair electoral law.”

Speaker Nabih Berri said Friday he was calling for a dialogue among Lebanon's bickering officials to resolve the gap that widened between the March 8 majority alliance and the March 14 opposition coalition in the aftermath of the assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau chief Wissam al-Hasan.

Berri told al-Akhbar newspaper published on Friday that his call for dialogue is aimed at resolving the country's political crisis that erupted after the killing of al-Hasan in a car bomb explosion in Beirut's Ashrafiyeh district.

Speaker Nabih Berri called on Wednesday officials to halt the strong rhetoric and not to adopt any escalatory provocative stances.

“We should all be wise to overcome the difficult stage that Lebanon is passing through,” Berri said during his weekly meeting with lawmakers at Ain al-Tineh.

Speaker Nabih Berri criticized the government on Tuesday for neglecting an electoral draft-law that it approved in August, saying it should withdraw the bill from parliament if it no longer backs it.

In an interview with al-Joumhouria newspaper, Berri said the government's negligence was a “sign that it was no longer holding onto the electoral law that it approved and referred to parliament for adoption.”

A Progressive Socialist Party delegation held talks on Monday with Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel to propose to him an initiative by MP Walid Jumblat to end the ongoing political crisis in Lebanon.

“We have no choice but to discuss the matter with our foes,” Gemayel told reporters after the meeting at the party headquarters in Saifi.