The Lebanese Cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal to raise the monthly salary by LL 200,000 retroactive to May 2008.

The Cabinet decision was announced by Finance Minister Mohammed Shatah following an eight-hour meeting at the Presidential Palace in suburban Baabda.

Shatah said the Cabinet also agreed to increase transport allowance for both public and private employees from LL 6,000 to LL 8,000.

He said the raise would cost the treasury about LL730 billion, adding that this is a "huge amount … but today was dedicated to tackle living conditions and find ways to improve them."

Information Minister Tareq Mitri, for his part, said President Michel Suleiman welcomed the Tripoli Reunion and hoped reconciliation would prevail over entire Lebanon.

The Cabinet called on Israel to implement United Nations resolutions regarding pending issues with Lebanon.

"The pending issues with Israel ... are all non-negotiable issues. They are governed by international resolutions to which Israel is subject," Mitri said.

Specifically, he said Israel must withdraw its forces from Lebanese territory, referring to the disputed Shebaa Farms; end overflights of Lebanese airspace and turn over maps of mines and cluster bombs laid and dropped on Lebanese territory.

Israel captured the Shebaa Farms from Syria in 1967, and Beirut now claims the small sliver of land at the junction of the three countries with the backing of Damascus. Israel insists the area is Syrian.

All the actions demanded should be "implemented completely and unconditionally," Mitri said, adding that "Lebanon rejects any negotiation that keeps Palestinian refugees on its land."

An estimated 400,000 Palestinian refugees live in 12 camps in Lebanon, according to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), and Mitri said naturalizing them was "not up for discussion."

Mitri also said Suleiman briefed the cabinet on his meeting last month with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.

"President al-Assad gives us an idea of what was happening in the indirect talks that Syria is undertaking with Israel and what the consequences of path to peace may be on region," Mitri quoted the president as saying.

"We discussed Lebanon's position on the matter," he added, without giving details.

A fifth round of indirect Syrian and Israeli talks sponsored by Turkey was postponed last week after an Israeli negotiator resigned, Assad reportedly said.(Naharnet-AFP)