Efforts to form a new government are set to kick off next week in light of the visit of caretaker Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour to Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam, reported the daily An Nahar Sunday.

The meeting, held three days ago, are set to kick-start the government talks, it said while revealing the Speaker Nabih Berri had contacted President Michel Suleiman to that end.

The parliament's extended 17-month term entered into force on Friday as the Constitutional Council failed to meet for the fourth and last time to issue a ruling on petitions filed against the extension.

The council's head, Judge Issam Suleiman, drafted a report to detail the reasons and the circumstances behind the failure to convene the 10-member body.

Caretaker Transportation and Public Works Minister Ghazi al-Aridi criticized on Wednesday the conditions being placed in the government formation process.

He said after holding talks with Speaker Nabih Berri: “A new cabinet cannot be formed in light of unyielding conditions.”

Speaker Nabih Berri revealed on Wednesday that he would call for a parliamentary subcommittee to resume its meetings to agree on a new electoral law.

Several lawmakers who visited Berri during his weekly meetings said that the speaker had promised them to revive the subcommittee as “soon as possible” to find an alternative to the 1960 law within a certain timeframe.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi received on Tuesday ahead of his trip to the Vatican a letter from Speaker Nabih Berri explaining the reasons behind the parliament's tenure extension.

“I don't mind the adoption of the 1960 law if you agree,” Berri told al-Rahi, according to local newspapers published on Wednesday.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met kicked off her second day official visit to Beirut by meeting with President Michel Suleiman at the Baabda Palace.

Ashton reportedly canceled her scheduled meetings with Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam and Caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour to visit UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura instead.

The extension of parliament's four-year mandate is heading to validation this week amid another lack of quorum for the Constitutional Council which should discuss petitions against the extension.

A new meeting for the council was set for next Friday.

Speaker Nabih Berri began his consultations to reach common ground among foes over the formation of Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam's cabinet, media reports said on Tuesday.

According to al-Joumhouria newspaper, Berri is exerting efforts to resolve the government crisis.

Speaker Nabih Berri has vowed to facilitate the task of Premier-designate Tammam Salam in forming the new government, considering him the best option at this sensitive stage.

In remarks to As Safir daily published Monday, Berri said he would exert all efforts to remove the obstacles confronting the cabinet formation process.

Al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Ahmed Fatfat has accused Speaker Nabih Berri of being a Hizbullah tool after two Shiite judges boycotted the meetings of the Constitutional Council.

In an interview with An Nahar daily published Sunday, Fatfat said: “What happened at the Constitutional Council showed that Nabih Berri is an execution tool to what Hizbullah says.”