Lebanon's premier-designate Fouad Saniora held a series of consultations with parliamentary bloc leaders to form a new cabinet of national unity and faced a demand by Hizbullah to be represented by two non-Shiite ministers, a Sunni and a Druze.
Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, who also heads the Change and Reform Bloc which is allied with Hizbullah, asked Saniora to be represented in the cabinet by five Christian Ministers. MP Michel Murr, who represents a bloc representing the Metn constituency, told Saniora that his son, Elias, is the bloc's representative for a cabinet seat, setting the defense or foreign portfolios as suitable seats.
MP Mohammed Safadi, representing the Tripoli Gathering, asked for a cabinet seat, stating that the public works portfolio, which he had held in the pervious cabinet, is the chosen seat in the new cabinet. The consultations are expected to end Saturday, the AP reported.
