More talks on Lebanese cabinet as deadline in doubt

Prime Minister-designate Mustapha Adib said on Monday he had met Lebanon's president for more consultations, raising doubts that he could form his cabinet by a deadline agreed with France of early this week to start hauling the nation out of deep crisis.

Lebanese leaders promised French President Emmanuel Macron in Beirut on Sept. 1 to form a government in two weeks, part of a roadmap drawn up by Paris to start reforms aimed at ending the worst crisis since Lebanon's civil war ended three decades ago.

"God willing, all will be well," Adib told reporters following his meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun.

An official source had previously said the prime minister-designate, a Sunni Muslim under Lebanon's sectarian system of power sharing, would present plans for his cabinet on Monday.

But on Sunday the Shi'ite Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and a leading Christian politician voiced objections to the way Adib was putting together a cabinet, undermining prospects for his government of technocrats to win support across the sectarian divide.