Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has said that Damascus encourages all Lebanese sides to make concessions to end the political vacuum that is “wearing the country away.”

“It is not true that Damascus has no interest in forming the government,” As Safir newspaper quoted him as saying in remarks published Friday. On the contrary, Jumblat said that he heard Syrian encouragement for all Lebanese sides to make concessions and form the government.

President Michel Suleiman and Premier-designate Najib Miqati have reportedly held telephone conversations with Syrian President Bashar Assad lately.

Well-informed sources told As Safir newspaper in remarks published Friday that Suleiman and Assad discussed the latest developments in Syria.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini revealed on Thursday that his country agreed with French President Nicolas Sarkozy to propose imposing strict sanctions against Syrian military and intelligence officials responsible for the violence against Syrian protestors.

He said that the proposal will be made before the European Union.

A Facebook group has called for protests on Friday against President Bashar al-Assad's regime and in solidarity with the southern town of Daraa, where troops and tanks have taken over the streets, Agence France Presse reported on Thursday.

"Friday of Anger, April 29, in solidarity with Daraa," says a notice on the Syrian Revolution 2011 page of Facebook, a motor of the protests in which demonstrators inspired by uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world are seeking greater freedoms.

Hundreds of Syrians fled into northern Lebanon on foot on Thursday after they said unrest broke out in the Syrian border town of Tall Kalakh, Agence France Presse reported.

They said Syrian troops encircled Tall Kalakh overnight after a demonstration there and were preventing people from entering the town of 25,000 residents.

Another 203 members of Syria's ruling Baath party announced their resignation Wednesday in protest at the deadly crackdown on protesters, raising the number to 233, according to lists seen by Agence France Presse.

The latest group to step down were members from the Houran region, which covers the flashpoint town of Daraa in the south of the country. Earlier 30 members resigned from the restive city of Banias in northwest Syria.

A Foreign Ministry source told Akhbar al-Yawm news agency that caretaker Foreign Minister Ali Shami will continue on coordinating his positions with Speaker Nabih Berri, while protocol requires him to consult with the prime minister and president.

This position came in light of Shami’s request on Tuesday from Lebanon’s Ambassador to the U.N. Nawwaf Salam not to approve a Security Council statement condemning the use of violence against protestors in Syria.

March 14 General Secretariat coordinator Fares Soaid criticized on Wednesday Speaker Nabih Berri’s recent statements on Syria, saying that they “involve Lebanon in Syria’s internal affairs in a very dangerous manner.”

He said after the general secretariat’s weekly meeting: “His statements expose Lebanon on all levels and we question such remarks seeing as they were issued from a man of state such as Nabih Berri.”

Speaker Nabih Berri questioned on Wednesday the delay in the government formation, stressing the need for its establishment given the difficult situation Lebanon and the region are going through.

He said during his weekly meeting with MPs at parliament that all sides should exercise diligence to confront the challenges facing Lebanon and the Lebanese.

Five EU countries are summoning Syria's ambassadors over its violent crackdown on protestors, France said Wednesday, saying it had been joined in the move by Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said Foreign Minister Alain Juppe's chief of staff met with Syrian ambassador Lamia Shakkur on Tuesday "as part of a coordinated move with Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy".