Political parties are obliged to agree on the controversial distribution of ministerial portfolios within a week time limit, otherwise they will be compelled to agree on a government line-up set by President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, media reports said on Thursday.

Aoun and Hariri will not leave the disagreements on portfolios to hinder the formation process any longer and have decided to take action in that regard. The choices at hand include “imposing a line-up which they see appropriate,” Free Patriotic Movement sources told al-Akhbar daily.

Speaker Nabih Berri said after the weekly Wednesday meeting with MPs that he is optimistic as for the efforts to line-up the cabinet, and emphasized that he insists to be given the public works ministerial portfolio.

“We expect minor problems hindering the formation to be eased. Efforts are ongoing to solve them and form a government in order to stipulate a new electoral law,” Berri remarked.

MP Jean Oghassapian said Wednesday that not all political parties were content with the understanding reached between the two Christian parties, Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement, which explains the reactions of some, including Speaker Nabih Berri's.

The MP said the hurdles hampering the distribution of ministerial portfolios and the reactions of Speaker Nabih Berri could be the result of “susceptibility” generated after the Christian understanding.

Closed meetings held between Lebanon's top officials at the sideline of the presidential reception at the Baabda Palace on Independence Day, generated positive signals that the diplomats have finally eased the difficulties that have been hampering the formation of a new cabinet.

Before the reception to receive well-wishers began, a meeting was held between President Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri. Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri later joined the two men, to be followed shortly by Caretaker PM Tammam Salam.

During a Presidential Palace reception where senior officials received well-wishers on Lebanon's Independence Day, Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri avoided shaking hands with the Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdul Karim Ali and briefly withdrew from the reception.

Hariri blames the Syrian regime for his father's assassination back in 2005.

Lebanon celebrated Independence Day on Tuesday with several challenges facing the country, including lining-up a new cabinet after the recent election of President Michel Aoun which ended a two-year power vacuum at the post.

The country marked 73 years of independence with an official ceremony that was be staged at Shafiq al-Wazzan Boulevard in Downtown Beirut.

Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji hailed on Monday the election of President Michel Aoun and said that it turns a new leaf for Lebanon that will help to found the basis for national unification that has long been sought.

Qahwaji's comments came during his Order of the Day on the Occasion of Independence Day, he said: “The election of President General Michel Aoun has turned a new page and reshaped the broad lines of a political reality that has witnessed a lot of divisions and alignments. It heralds a promising era in the regularity of the state institutions and the integration of their roles, and to improve stability.”

President Michel Aoun has received cables greeting him on the occasion of Lebanon's Independence Day from the United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, state-run National News Agency reported on Monday.

In his cable, the UAE president offered his sincerest wishes for the Lebanese President and people.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault stated that the Saudi grant to provide Lebanon with French weapons has not been reactivated as yet, and that the Lebanese need to send a positive “political signal” through the formation of a new cabinet to reactivate it, media reports said on Monday.

“The signal to reactivate the grant will not rise from the Saudi side but should initially originate from the Lebanese through the formation of their government,” Ayrault told An Nahar daily in an interview.

Speaker Nabih Berri unveiled an old agreement between him and President Michel Aoun when the latter vowed to Berri that the finance ministry will always be given to a Shiite minister as long as Aoun is president, As Safir daily reported Monday.

Berri unveiled the agreement that goes back to 1988 when Lebanon was under the Syrian tutelage and President Michel Aoun was Army Commander. He said that Aoun had vowed that the finance ministry portfolio will always be given to a Shiite minister as long as he is president, shall Berri convince the Syrian leadership of helping Aoun reach the presidential post, the daily reported.