Speaker Nabih Berri expressed surprise on Wednesday on accusations and criticism that Electricite du Liban’s contract workers are members of his AMAL movement, local newspaper reported.

Berri said that he is “not ashamed” to voice his sympathy with the workers.

The “chemistry” between Hizbullah and the Free Patriotic Movement began dissipating over their differences on the status of Electricite du Liban’s contract workers, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Tuesday.

The newspaper said however that Hizbullah is exerting strong efforts to consolidate their ties out of its keenness on the government and to prevent its collapse.

The al-Qaida terrorist network has offered a $300,000 reward for the assassination of Speaker Nabih Berri and Army chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji, al-Akhbar daily reported on Tuesday.

The newspaper said that al-Qaida members in Lebanon were offered by the network’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri $150,000 for killing Berri and another $150,000 for assassinating Qahwaji through a “missile ambush” of their motorcades.

Deputy Secretary of State William Burns completed his two-day visit to Lebanon on Friday and acknowledged Lebanon’s disassociation policy from the developments in Syria, said the U.S. Embassy in a statement.

He reiterated “U.S. interest in keeping Lebanon insulated from the violence in Syria.”

Security forces deployed heavily on Friday near Electricite du Liban’s headquarters in Mar Mikhael in Beirut in case the contract workers escalated their measures to protest the delay in their full-time employment and salaries payment.

Media reports said that the strict security boost near the company is plainly a “precautionary measure” to prevent the contract workers from forcing the shutting of the cash registers.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati slammed on Friday the sides that have criticized the manner in which the Special Tribunal for Lebanon was funded, saying that their campaign “against me reflects their spite and lack of reason.”

He said in a statement: “The critics’ statements prove beyond a doubt that they do not seek justice or the truth in the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri.”

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah stressed that the alliance with Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun is firm and will not collapse, al-Akhbar newspaper published on Thursday.

Nasrallah hailed Aoun’s stances, noting that his party is exerting efforts to resolve the dispute among the March 8 parliamentary majority, the daily said.

Speaker Nabih Berri on Tuesday stressed that the Lebanese “cannot preserve national unity through consensual security, but rather through supporting the army.”

“We will not give up a single grain of our land's soil in the South and will not accept that our people remain a prey to (Israeli) tyranny,” Berri said in a speech he delivered at a ceremony to award him the Elias Hrawi prize for his role in preserving the National Pact.

President Michel Suleiman will head to Turkey in the upcoming two days to address the case of the 11 kidnapped Lebanese pilgrims in Syria.

According to An Nahar newspaper published on Tuesday, Speaker Nabih Berri revealed the information to the families of the abducted men.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns is expected to discuss with Lebanese officials this week the repercussions of the Syrian crisis on Lebanon, An Nahar daily reported on Tuesday.

Burns arrives in Beirut on a two-day visit on Thursday and is scheduled to meet with Speaker Nabih Berri, Premier Najib Miqati, al-Mustaqbal bloc leader Fouad Saniora and Army chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji, a high-ranking source told the newspaper.