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| 20/06/2008 "It would be nobler for PM Designate Fouad Saniora to step back if he fails to form the government before next Tuesday," said loyalty MP Ghassan Tuweini Thursday, after meeting Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
Tuweini's statement, three weeks after nominating Saniora to form the national-unity government, reflected the necessity to set the cabinet as soon as possible in order to safeguard the country from eventual dangers.
"Saniora is trying to establish the cabinet using the residues of the previous reign, he can't form a new government with this strategy," Tuweini noted, adding that Saniora has to be convinced that he cannot form the government amid such barricades."
"Since day one of the consultations, I called on Saniora not to participate in this government," Tuwein revealed, wondering whether "we were establishing ministerial portfolios federalism…Each wants to get a portfolio and take it home with him!"
Tueini slammed the so-called basic portfolios as a heresy, saying that he has searched for it in constitution and legal references but didn't find any mention of such portfolios.
OPPOSITION SOURCES: PROBLEM WITHIN LOYALTY BLOC
Meanwhile, Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar revealed pressure within the loyalty bloc to prompt Saniora to step back for not forming the government yet, thus opening the way for MP Saad Hariri to revive his hopes of taking Saniora's place and form the new government.
The daily quoted opposition sources as saying that the "problem" was not with the opposition, particularly not with the head of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc MP Michel Aoun, but rather within the loyalty bloc itself "due to differences over the shares of the new cabinet."
SULEIMAN URGES LEBANESE TO UNITE AGAINST UNREST
Earlier, Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman expressed hope that a "period of national reconciliation" would follow the eventual assembly of a consensus national unity government.
After a meeting with Vice President of the Higher Shiite Council Sheikh Abdel Amir Qabalan, Suleiman urged the Lebanese to "unite against the unrest" and maintain the integrity of the Taef agreement, stressing that the national unity government should serve as a doorway to the protection of national interests, and not additional disputes.
Suleiman praised the "resistance in Lebanon," which he said had "the support of all segments of the Lebanese society," adding that the resistance, which was victorious in "fighting and driving the enemy out" of Lebanon, should now "form a basic pillar of Lebanese democracy." | 
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