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Agencies- Israeli officials are extremely concerned about Hizbullah’s growing strength in south lebanon, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Monday. Hizbullah controls southern Lebanon and enjoys a “complete hold” over the area, Mofaz said, and added that the group doubled the number of long-range rockets it possesses. “The presence of UNIFIL and Lebanese Army forces in Southern Lebanon is insignificant and does not constitute an obstacle in the face of Hizbullah’s strengthening,” he said.

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora presided over an unofficial cabinet meeting on Tuesday to discuss the possibility of raising the minimum wage, and two participants said some ministers proposed a LL100,000 increase alongside a LL50,000 transportation allowance.A cabinet spokesman said that the discussion was postponed until next week because there were too few ministers presetn to achieve a quorum. (more…)

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s office said in a statement the speaker was still waiting for a clear response from the ruling March 14 coalition on his call for resumption of 14-party roundtable talks. Sources close to Berri told The Daily Star that the speaker was against holding national dialogue in the form of bilateral meetings with al Mustaqbal leader Saad Hariri and preferred holding all-party talks. (more…)

U.S. President George Bush on Tuesday said he was still hopeful of a Middle East peace deal before the end of his term in January but warned that Hamas could “undermine” the effort. In a White House press conference, Bush acknowledged that achieving peace was an uphill task but said he was “still hopeful we will get an agreement by the end of my presidency” in January 2009 on establishing a Palestinian state. (more…)

AFP told that Palestinian Hamas militants are serving as the “proxy warriors” for an Iran bent on destroying Israel and destabilizing the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday. In a speech to the American Jewish Committee in Washington that underscored growing U.S. concerns about Tehran, Rice mentioned Iran as not just a threat in the Palestinian territories, but also in Lebanon, Iraq and even in Afghanistan. (more…)

Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir said the presidential election path was paved with bad intentions, stressing that choosing a new head of state was inevitable since dialogue has proved to be unsuccessful.”Some Lebanese seek to achieve personal goals … at Lebanon’s expense. It seems that they don’t want to elect a president on time,” Sfeir told LBC’s Bikul Juraa talk show on Tuesday. (more…)

The March 14 alliance has linked a return to the dialogue table to the unconditional election of a president and commissioned MP Saad Hariri to discuss with Speaker Nabih Berri ways that ensure a new head of state is chosen on May 13.The ruling coalition’s official announcement to Berri’s call for dialogue under his auspices came Monday night after a meeting held in Qoreitem and attended by former President Amin Gemayel, Hariri, Druze leader Walid Jumblat, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea and other prominent March 14 cabinet ministers, legislators and politicians. (more…)

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is intentionally concealing information about Hizbullah activities south of the Litani River to avoid conflict with the Shiite group, senior Israeli sources told Haaretz. They said in the last six months there have been at least four cases in which UNIFIL soldiers identified armed Hizbullah operatives, but did nothing and did not submit full reports on the incidents to the U.N. Security Council. (more…)

MP Michel Murr on Monday expected a parliamentary session set for May 13 to result in electing a president “before something happens.” Murr, in a statement to reporters, said ex-minister Suleiman Franjieh, an ally of Syria, should “convince his allies” in the Hizbullah-led opposition to elect Gen. Michel Suleiman President “especially after the majority has accepted the county-constituency” principle for Parliamentary elections.
He urged Lebanese politicians to “make use of the prevailing atmosphere to elect a president on May 13 before something goes wrong in the second half of May.”

The United States on Friday removed four countries, including Lebanon, from the “priority” list and placed them on the lower-level watch list because of improvements in their efforts to protect U.S. intellectual property rights. Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey and Ukraine, were moved from last year’s priority watch list to the less-severe watch list due to their improvements in IPR protection, The Special 301 Report issued by the U.S. Trade Representative said. (more…)

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal on Monday played down Syrian warnings against internationalizing the Lebanon crisis.  Prince Saud told reporters the international community was actively involved in trying to settle the crisis. (more…)

AP told that Israeli warplanes violated Lebanese airspace on Monday, flying on reconnaissance missions over Beirut and elsewhere in the country, the Lebanese army said. The army said in a statement that “12 enemy Israeli warplanes” violated Lebanese airspace before noon, four flew over the Mediterranean off the coastal city of Byblos in the north and headed toward the eastern province of Hermel. (more…)