BEIRUT - Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati may resign on Friday after deadlock in his cabinet over preparations for a parliamentary election and a dispute over extending the term of a senior security official, ministerial sources said.
Speaking at the end of a two-hour cabinet meeting, they said President Michel Suleiman had suspended any further government meetings after Mikati's ministers failed to agree on the issues.
Mikati was due to make a public statement on Friday evening. Lebanese media had said he would speak at 7.30 pm (1730 GMT) after returning to his government offices, but his statement appeared to have been delayed.
Mikati was appointed premier in 2011 after the Shi'ite group Hezbollah and its allies brought down the unity government of Saad al-Hariri.
During his two years in office he has sought to insulate his country from the civil war in neighbouring Syria which deepened Lebanon's own sectarian tensions and led to street battles in the northern city of Tripoli.
The cabinet failed on Friday to extend the term of Major General Ashraf Rifi, head of Lebanon's internal security forces, who is due to retire early next month. Rifi, like Mikati, is a Sunni Muslim from Tripoli.
Hezbollah and its allies objected to the extension and also opposed the formation of a supervisory body to oversee a parliamentary election which is due in June. Lebanese politicians have yet to agree arrangements for the poll.
The president and the prime minister said they were not prepared to chair any cabinet meeting if the supervisory body was not on the agenda, ministers said, effectively halting further cabinet meetings.
The Syrian fighting, a tide of Syrian refugees pouring into Lebanon and the country's own domestic turmoil have also caused a sharp slowdown in Lebanon's economy and a 67 percent surge in its budget deficit last year. - Reuters