President Michel Suleiman and Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri have given their consent to a proposal to hold an extraordinary cabinet session to renew the mandate of Central Bank governor Riyad Salameh, An Nahar daily said Wednesday.

The newspaper reported that Suleiman and Hariri accepted such a proposal as an alternative to Speaker Nabih Berri’s call to hold a parliamentary session that in addition to the mandate’s renewal has 48 other items on the agenda.

President Michel Suleiman did not ask caretaker Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar to take judicial measures against Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, informed sources told An Nahar daily, claiming that the request to “study” the case was made “orally” and then interpreted by a memo released by the presidency’s general-directorate.

The sources told An Nahar daily on Wednesday that the oral request was based on article 49 of the constitution and did not have a reference for the referral of Rifi to the judiciary over his rejection to comply with caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud’s order to pull members of the ISF’s Information Branch from a building affiliated with the telecommunications ministry.

As Lebanon has plunged into turmoil with the absence of a new government and the growing confrontation between the March 8 and 14 forces, Caretaker Minister Jebran Bassil and the aide of either the speaker or the Hizbullah leader attended the Champions League Final, reported As Safir daily on Tuesday.

The newspaper said that Bassil and either MP Ali Hassan Khalil or Hussein Khalil were on Saturday among the crowds attending the football match during which Barcelona outclassed Manchester United 3-1 at Wembley to claim their second Champions League crown in three years.

March 14 lawmakers have accused Speaker Nabih Berri of putting the speakership in confrontation of not only the March 14 forces but also the Cedar Revolution after he said it took Lebanon back 60 years on the democratic level.

In remarks to An Nahar daily on Tuesday, the sources warned that Berri was making attempts to put on the agenda of a parliamentary session on June 8 the issue of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and Lebanon’s commitment to it.

The March 14 forces might resort to adopting a “mobile” draft-law to thwart an attempt by Speaker Nabih Berri to hold a parliamentary session on June 8 to renew the mandate of the Central Bank governor.

Berri is seeking to give the parliament executive powers amid an absence of a government and a need to find solutions to pressing issues such as the renewal of Riyad Salameh’s mandate and amnesty for several prisoners.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday condemned a bomb attack near the Lebanese southern city of Sidon that seriously injured two Italian peacekeepers, pledging to "bring the perpetrators to justice."

"I condemn the attack on the U.N. peacekeepers which happened today in Lebanon," Ban said in a statement. "It is all the more deplorable because today is the International Day of the United Nations Peacekeepers."

The March 8 forces said that as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, President Michel Suleiman should resolve the Telecommunications Ministry crisis and force all security forces to abide by his decisions.

A high-ranking March 8 source told As Safir daily in remarks published Friday that amid a caretaking cabinet and Interior Minister Ziad Baroud’s decision to absolve himself from his duties, the responsibility of Suleiman lies in addressing the issue as all security forces become his subordinates.

Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri has urged the judicial authority to follow-up the attempt by Caretaker Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahhas “to put his hands on the third telecommunications network,” a statement released by his press office said.

Hariri stressed that “he doesn’t object that the competent judicial authority takes up this issue to determine why the Minister of Telecommunications overruled the decisions of the Council of Ministers,” said the press release.

Dar al-Fatwa is planning to sue Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun for libel and defamation after he allegedly described members of the Sunni sect as “terrorists.”

Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani blasted the lawmaker on Wednesday, saying: “Let Aoun know that doing harm to any sect, means harming all sects in Lebanon.”

Al-Mustaqbal bloc sources have blamed the parties who were behind the toppling of Caretaker PM Saad Hariri’s cabinet for the current government formation impasse.

“The actual responsibility of the crisis lies on those who toppled Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri’s government and claimed that his presence in Lebanon was hindering the formation of the new cabinet,” sources told An Nahar daily about the March 8 forces.