Contacts aimed at forming the new government made a “serious progress” on the differences over the Sunni representation and the share of Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc, As Safir daily reported Saturday.

An Nahar newspaper also said that intense meetings between Premier-designate Najib Miqati and March 8 officials led to an agreement on the shares of each side but the leaders are staying mum on the issue.

Premier-designate Najib Miqati reportedly met with President Michel Suleiman on Thursday night, the same day he sent his brother Taha and nephew Azmi to Damascus.

An Nahar daily said Friday that the Miqati-Suleiman meeting took place at the president’s residence and not his office. As for the envoys that Miqati sent to Syria, well-informed sources told As Safir newspaper that Taha and Azmi Miqati held talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Speaker Nabih Berri confirmed on Friday that he suggested a way out of the difficulties that are facing the new government formation, but refused to give its details.

“I suggested a solution to solve the complications facing the cabinet lineup,” Berri remarked to As-Safir newspaper.

Speaker Nabih Berri assured on Wednesday that the government formation is underway and “it will be formed sooner or later, but the timing has not been set yet.”

Addressing developments in Syria during his weekly parliamentary meeting, he said: “The situation in Syria was already stable and it will always stand as the fort of Arabism.”

President Michel Suleiman commended on Wednesday the security forces’ efforts in trying to uncover the sides behind the abduction of the seven Estonian cyclists in the Bekaa last week, as well as those behind the church bombing in Zahle on Sunday.

He stressed that the “security and maintaining civil peace and Lebanon’s external image are red lines” that should not be crossed, urging security and military officials to take strict measures with anyone violating them.

Speaker Nabih Berri has stressed that Lebanon’s security should not be linked to the political vacuum created by the deadlock on the formation of the new cabinet.

In remarks to several Beirut dailies published Wednesday, Berri said: “The effectiveness of security apparatuses should not be based on the formation of the government.” He stressed that security agencies have their own budgets.

Premier-designate Najib Miqati is expected to visit President Michel Suleiman on Tuesday and propose to him a de facto cabinet lineup, former Prime Minister Omar Karami’s sources told As Safir daily.

They said the draft lineup does not include the name of Faisal Omar Karami. According to the sources, Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun is not aware of it and Hizbullah has already informed Miqati that it rejects a cabinet that doesn’t include Karami.

Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said Monday that Lebanese officials informed him that Beirut authorities were making every effort to find seven Estonian tourists kidnapped in the Bekaa valley last week.

Paet met with President Michel Suleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri, Premier-designate Najib Miqati and Caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati has reportedly said that he can’t ignore the latest stance of Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi who threw his support behind Caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud.

Ad-Diyar daily on Monday quoted Miqati as saying that he “can’t ignore Patriarch al-Rahi’s stance about giving a portfolio to Baroud in the government.”

Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri has reportedly told March 14 officials not to target Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat who has fallen out of the alliance.

“I don’t want anyone to target Walid Jumblat ever,” Hariri has said, according to the Kuwaiti daily al-Anbaa.