New Lebanese government during Ramadan?

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Outgoing Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said a new government would materialize at some point during the holy month of Ramadan.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri led his Western-backed March14 coalition to victory in the June parliamentary election, narrowly defeating the March 8 opposition slate.

Hariri pledged to work quickly on his new Cabinet, reaching a power-sharing agreement with opposition leaders.

That agreement calls for a new government with 15 ministers from March 14, 10 from the March 8 coalition and five members loyal to Lebanese President Michel Suleiman.

The departure of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt from the March 14 slate earlier this month, however, threw the Cabinet developments into disarray.

Meanwhile, Michel Aoun, leader of the opposition Free Patriotic Movement, refused a recent meeting with Hariri as government negotiations drag on over the appointment of Cabinet ministers.

Siniora, for his part, told reporters following a meeting with the Lebanese president that "matters had not matured enough with regard to the formation of a Cabinet," Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper reports.

The outgoing premier, however, said he aimed to reach a settlement on the issue at some point during the holy month of Ramadan, which begins Saturday.