BEIRUT: Prime Minister Najib Mikati promised Friday that the Cabinet will discuss demands by Michel Aoun’s parliamentary Change and Reform bloc in order to avoid a boycott by the bloc’s ministers similar to last week’s no-show, which thwarted a Cabinet session for lack of quorum.

“Of course all these demands will be the center of discussion in Cabinet,” Mikati told The Daily Star while touring the Beirut International Arab Book Fair at the BIEL complex.

“I cannot talk for all the Cabinet, the Cabinet is an institution ... I am confident that the Cabinet will take the needed decision at the right time,” Mikati said.

Asked whether these demands will be on the agenda of the upcoming Cabinet session, Mikati said: “Not necessarily in the upcoming session. We will see.”

Energy Minister Gibran Bassil, Aoun’s son-in-law, met with Mikati Thursday and handed him the bloc’s demands. The demands, published by As-Safir newspaper Friday, called for energizing a $1.2 billion electricity plan to increase power supply; approval of a water plan; preparing the 2012 draft budget according to regulations agreed upon by the Parliamentary Finance Committee; finalizing the blocked financial accounts; approval of a salary adjustment linking it with a comprehensive health coverage; preparing a draft program to arm the Lebanese Army, in addition to the approval of the required administrative and judicial appointments, at the forefront of which is the president of the Higher Judicial Council.

The Cabinet failed to meet last week after nine ministers from Aoun’s bloc thwarted a quorum with their boycott. Aoun, who heads the second-largest bloc in Parliament, threatened to withdraw his 10 ministers from the Cabinet in protest over the government’s poor performance. He accused the government of failing to act on projects presented by the bloc.

Mikati met Friday with two of Aoun’s 10 ministers, Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas and Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui, to discuss the bloc’s demands. The two ministers did not speak to reporters after the meeting.

Political sources said one of the bloc’s demands has been put on the agenda of next Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting: The labor minister’s draft proposal containing a general policy on wages, the National Social Security Fund and employment.

Earlier Friday, Mikati paid a visit to his hometown of Tripoli where he attended prayers at the city’s Grand Mansouri Mosque. The prayers were led by the north’s Mufti Sheikh Malek Shaar, who praised Mikati’s decision Wednesday to pay Lebanon’s $32.6 million share to the funding of the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon. In a speech at the Beirut International Arab Book Fair, Mikati defended his decision to fund the STL, which is trying to uncover those responsible for the 2005 assassination of statesman Rafik Hariri.

“In these critically important times, I must speak about the political conditions that we are experiencing, after the decision I took two days ago to pay Lebanon’s share to the funding of the STL. I would like to say: Lebanon has once again triumphed, and was able to confront this deadline with responsibility for the sake of justice and achieving justice,” Mikati said.

He refused to respond to critics of his decision – Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said Thursday he did not agree with Mikati’s move to pay Lebanon’s share to the STL’s budget, but said his party would not cause problems.

Meanwhile, a political adviser to Aoun defended the bloc’s demand for advanced weaponry for the Lebanese Army. “Everybody is talking about the weapons of Hezbollah and that the army should take over control of territory. The army cannot take over without weapons. We need real weapons to let the army do its job,” Aoun’s policy adviser Michel de Chadarevian told The Daily Star.

“The army should take into their charge the security of their borders and with their current capability they cannot. We see the U.S. saying they are arming the army, but it is only giving them Humvees and flak jackets. We don’t need them ... We would welcome arms from any country that wants to equip the army,” he said. – With additional reporting by Patrick Galey