Sources close to Premier Najib Miqati said Sunday that the appointments of civil servants would take back their course after they caused the suspension of cabinet sessions on Feb. 1.

In remarks to An Nahar newspaper, the sources said that Miqati is working on speeding the process of appointments through meetings with the Civil Service Council.

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc leader Fouad Saniora reiterated his demand for parliament’s legitimization of extra-budgetary spending away from the “logic of vengeance” as a meeting scheduled to be held on Monday by the parliament bureau and the heads and secretaries of committees will seek to settle the issue.

Saniora held talks with President Michel Suleiman at Baabda palace on Saturday. His sources told An Nahar daily on Sunday that the two officials discussed extra-budgetary spending and Speaker Nabih Berri’s pledge to resolve the issue before a legislative session on March 5.

Speaker Nabih Berri called for a session for the heads of the parliamentary committees on Monday amid efforts to resolve a dispute over the spending of funds during the governments of former Prime Ministers Fouad Saniora and Saad Hariri, reported the daily An Nahar on Saturday.

Informed parliamentary sources told the daily that the speaker is seeking the formation of a parliamentary-ministerial committee that can tackle the dispute and conduct contacts with the various blocs to reach a solution.

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel on Friday met with Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain al-Tineh, saying he discussed with him “some ideas that could reinforce consensus among all parties amid these circumstances.”

Gemayel said the proposed ideas would help “immunize our domestic arena in the face of all the storms around us.”

The al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc stressed on Friday that Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun lost on three fronts when the March 14 lawmakers withdrew from a parliamentary session the day before.

Al-Mustaqbal sources told An Nahar that Aoun lost Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas, failed to win support for a $5.9 billion cabinet spending bill, and witnessed the removal of the Value Added Tax on red and green diesel, a move rejected by Energy Minister Jebran Bassil.

Speaker Nabih Berri expressed regret at the withdrawal of the March 14 opposition MPs from a parliamentary session on Thursday, saying he adjourned the meeting over his keenness on national cohesion.

“I am not satisfied with what happened even if the democratic game allows lawmakers to withdraw from the session,” Berri said in remarks published in Beirut dailies on Friday.

Speaker Nabih Berri adjourned on Thursday the parliamentary session to March 5 after lack of quorum following a decision by the majority of March 14 alliance opposition lawmakers to leave the legislature in an attempt to block the adoption of a bill that would legalize $5.9 billion spending by the government above 2005 levels.

Lebanon hasn’t had any official budget since that year.

The official resignation of Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas on Wednesday was accompanied by signs of a political settlement reached between the top leaders that would witness a March 14 support for a draft law on the transportation allowance in return for a drop of March 8 majority demands to see records of billions of dollars spent by the governments of former Premiers Fouad Saniora and Saad Hariri.

President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati accepted the resignation of Nahhas who had been refusing to sign a transportation allowance decree linked with a wage hike made by the cabinet.

Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan confirmed reports that the parliamentary majority forces were seeking to garner majority support for a draft-law proposed by him to authorize the cabinet to set the transportation allowance.

The draft-law “is a solution and guarantees the (continued) work of the cabinet, Kanaan told An Nahar daily published Wednesday despite reports that Speaker Nabih Berri could withdraw the draft-law and another one drafted by opposition al-Mustaqbal MP Nabil de Freij from the agenda of the session if the resignation of Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas was not sent to Premier Najib Miqati ahead of the session.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun revealed on Tuesday that he has not yet decided whether he will accept Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas’ resignation.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting: “The dispute over the transportation allowance is now between us and Nahhas.”