BEIRUT: Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun said his ministers would attend Wednesday’s Cabinet session after the parliamentary grouping threatened to boycott meetings of the executive branch of government.

“We decided to participate in today’s session and the reason is that we have a [draft] law to increase salaries and it has been proposed by the labor minister,” Aoun said after a meeting by Change and Reform bloc officials in Rabieh, north of Beirut.

“We hope that the law will be approved so we can all celebrate the holidays in peace,” he added.

Aoun said the party he leads, the Free Patriotic Movement, would discuss its demands further with allies in the March 8 coalition.

The FPM is demanding that the Cabinet settle the issue of civil service appointments, government approval of a nationwide salary adjustment, passing the 2012 draft budget and addressing the issue of the state’s public finance account.

Hezbollah has voiced its support for the FPM’s demands and urged Prime Minister Najib Mikati to resume the work at the Cabinet level.

FPM sources told The Daily Star earlier Wednesday that Change and Reform ministers would attend the Cabinet session without any form of assurances that Mikati would address their demands.

The ministers boycotted a Cabinet session two weeks ago, saying the move was in protest over the government’s poor performance and demanded that Mikati adjust the Cabinet agenda to address items they deemed as important.