Outgoing President Michel Suleiman chaired a meeting on Sunday for the Higher Defense Council at the Baabda Palace.

Suleiman called for safeguarding security agencies and providing the army with the necessary needs, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam stressed on Sunday that if the March 8 and 14 alliances exerted efforts to reach an agreement over a presidential candidate then the deadlock in the country will end, warning of any possible of vacuum at the country's top Christian post.

“We still have one week before the deadline ends,” Salam said in an interview with the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat.

The March 14 alliance considered on Sunday that outgoing President Michel Suleiman scolded lawmakers in his message to the parliament for failing to carry out their constitutional duties.

Sources close to the March 14 coalition told the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa newspaper that Suleiman in his messages was seeking to rebuke the parliament for failing to elect a new head of state as his tenure end next week.

Political arch-foes limited discussions over the presidential candidates to four names, a list which doesn't include any prominent Christian leader, An Nahar newspaper reported on Sunday.

According to the daily, Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji is a key candidate on the four-name list.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat made a slip of the tongue during a speech on Saturday when he mistakenly addressed President Michel Suleiman as MP Michel Aoun, the head of the Free Patriotic Movement.

His mistake drew raucous laughter among the crowd that included Suleiman, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, and a number of officials.

A celebration was held on Saturday in the Shouf region to mark Christian-Druze reconciliation in the village of Brih following a break in ties between the two sides following the 1975-90 Civil War.

President Michel Suleiman, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat attended the celebration along with a number of lawmakers from various parliamentary blocs.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun has reportedly rejected the appointment of three members of the Military Council, an article that was set to be discussed during a cabinet session on Friday, reported As Safir newspaper on Saturday.

It said that his veto of the appointment of the members is part if his opposition to the extension of Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji's term.

President Michel Suleiman expressed content on Saturday to leave the presidential palace as his term approaches its end amid controversy of extension, and affirmed that he will continue his political work as a “political reference.”

“I am relaxed and happy because I will be leaving the presidential palace. I liberated myself from what is called the extension and renewal of my term, and filling in the post in case of vacuum as some are suggesting,” Suleiman told al-Liwaa daily.

President Michel Suleiman urged the parliament on Friday to act in accordance with the Constitution to avert the dangers that could arise from the failure to elect a new head of state by May 25.

Suleiman made his plea in a message he sent to parliament via Speaker Nabih Berri and in accordance with the authorities given to him by clause 10 of article 53 of the Constitution.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has said that the agreement on a consensual presidential candidate required an understanding between Iran and Saudi Arabia coupled with the cooperation of the rival parties with Hizbullah and its baker Tehran.

An official close to Jumblat told Addiyar daily that the PSP chief denied rumors that Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun would be elected president if ex-PM Saad Hariri, who leads al-Mustaqbal movement, gave his consent.