Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat is scheduled to travel to France to meet with a number of officials, reported As Safir newspaper on Saturday.

He is expected to hold talks with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Monday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat hoped on Monday that the government would take “bold and decisive” measures to halt corruption and the squandering of public funds.

He asked: “Why is the cabinet shying away from its responsibilities in tackling the new wage scale?”

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat warned both the parliamentary majority and the opposition that they will not be able to make political gains and change the balance imposed in parliament.

“If you think that the elections will allow any team to twist the arm of the other party, then you are mistaken,” Jumblat, who is the head of the National Struggle Front bloc, told As Safir newspaper published Saturday.

Al-Mustaqbal movement described on Friday Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat's initiative to resolve the country's political crisis as “positive,” reiterating demands that the cabinet steps down.

“The resignation of the cabinet is the solution to defuse the tension in the country,” head of al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc Fouad Saniora said in a statement.

A Progressive Socialist Party delegation held talks recently with Lebanese Forces officials as part of ongoing efforts to resolve Lebanon's political crisis, announced the LF in a statement on Wednesday.

MP Strida Geagea said after the talks: “Differences in opinion do not mean that ties between the LF and PSP will change, but they will always remain good.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat hailed on Monday the international community's “unprecedented historic step” in recognizing the state of Palestine.

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine: “The decision should help the Palestinians continue their struggle to establish their independent state away from the empty slogans of defiance issued by regimes that have spoken of liberating the whole of Palestine without lifting a finger to so for decades.”

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.

Speaker Nabih Berri emphasized on Monday that Lebanon and Cyprus have no problems over the offshore oil and gas wealth in the Mediterranean.

He said after holding talks with visiting Cypriot Speaker Yiannakis Omirou: “I hope that tenders would be issued before the end of the year to begin oil and gas exploration.”

Public Works Minister Ghazi Aridi said Friday following talks with Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun at the head of a Progressive Socialist Party delegation that the two sides agreed on the need to revive dialogue.

“We agreed on several issues mainly on the need to revive dialogue,” said Aridi from Aoun's residence in Rabieh.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat condemned on Thursday the bombing that targeted the Jarmana town in Syria on Wednesday, saying that it is aimed at stirring sectarian tensions in the country.

He therefore urged in a statement Syria's “Druze population to join the Syrian rebels who are marking in blood heroic battles against oppression on a daily basis.”