President Michel Suleiman is expected to visit Syria after the adoption of the cabinet’s policy statement and parliament’s vote of confidence, the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported on Friday.

Suleiman is reportedly said to visit Syria to meet his counterpart President Bashar Assad.

President Michel Suleiman is “seriously” mulling to re-launch the national dialogue to discuss the country’s defense strategy and economic issues, Baabda palace sources told As Safir daily.

The sources said in remarks published Friday that Suleiman is considering sending invitations to the country’s political leaders after the new cabinet receives parliament’s vote of confidence.

President Michel Suleiman stressed during the new cabinet’s first session that the government was formed with a Lebanese agenda and without foreign meddling, Information Minister Walid al-Daouq quoted him as saying.

Suleiman added: “Syria didn’t interfere and this is what we ask for.”

The new government may witness a series of internal disputes that may lead to hindering its functioning given that President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati will attempt to thwart any attempts by Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun to take the government off its course, informed sources told al-Liwaa newspaper in remarks published on Wednesday.

Such attempts may include him taking spiteful actions against his political rivals, especially the Mustaqbal and March 14 movements, they added.

Premier Najib Miqati’s new cabinet held its first session at Baabda palace on Wednesday in the absence of Talal Arslan who had announced his resignation to protest the state ministry post allotted to him.

President Michel Suleiman chaired the meeting at 10:30 am. Miqati and the remaining 28 members of the cabinet attended. Arslan announced his resignation hours after the government was formed on Monday. He was demanding a cabinet portfolio.

Speaker Nabih Berri has unveiled that he decided to give up a Shiite minister from his share in the new cabinet without consulting any of his allies despite media reports contradicting his remarks.

“I got the idea on my way to the presidential palace. Eventually I lost a minister but won Lebanon,” Berri told An Nahar daily on Tuesday.

Sources close to President Michel Suleiman have stressed that Najib Miqati’s cabinet is a “consensual government” that allows the head of state, the premier and the leader of the National Struggle Front to push it towards centrism.

The sources told al-Mustaqbal daily in remarks published Tuesday that the cabinet is consensual and allows Suleiman, Miqati and Walid Jumblat “to put their centrist touches on it.”

The final hours before announcing the long-awaited cabinet line-up witnessed intense contacts and a surprise meeting at the Baabda Palace between President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati.

After 30 minutes, Speaker Nabih Berri joined the meeting after he was invited “urgently and without previous notice,” Al-Manar television reported.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday telephoned President Michel Suleiman to congratulate him on the formation of a new cabinet led by Prime Minister Najib Miqati after nearly five months of wrangling, Suleiman's office said.

For his part, Suleiman hoped “calm and stability will be restored in Syria in the nearest time.”

Sources close to President Michel Suleiman ruled out on Sunday the formation of the new cabinet in the next few days as Premier-designate Najib Miqati’s sources said he hasn’t yet received the names of the candidates of the Free Patriotic Movement and Hizbullah.

The Baabda palace sources told Ad-Diyar daily that Miqati was still seeking to remove the obstacles hindering the formation of the cabinet.