Budget Crisis Made Significant Stride
Discussions regarding finding a settlement to the 2009 state budget crisis, particularly an exit to the Council for the South budget, have made a "significant stride" toward completing the financial plan.
The daily As Safir on Friday quoted an opposition ministerial source as saying that a deal has been cut during a recent meeting between Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Fouad Saniora where the two leaders agreed to keep contacts alive between the Council for the South and the Finance Ministry.
The source said a number of detailed Council project planning had been submitted to the finance ministry for examination where LL 15 billion related to property and land used UNIFIL had been added up.
This amount, the source explained, is likely to be attached to the Council budget so that the total reaches LL 60 billion. This way both Berri and Saniora would emerge as the winners in the "budget battle," according to the source.