BEIRUT - Hezbollah has rejected a proposal to give the Interior and Defense Ministries to the March 14 coalition in a new unity government, Al-Hayat newspaper reported.

"The solution proposed to give the Finance Ministry to the Amal Movement, the Foreign Ministry to the Free Patriotic Movement, and the Interior and Defense ministries to the March 14 coalition was rejected by Hezbollah, which refuses giving the portfolios responsible for the country's security to the March 14 coalition," a well-informed source told the newspaper.

According to the report, Hezbollah's rejection prompted Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt to "take action to find a non-provocative party to receive the Interior Ministry portfolio."

The source also stated that FPM leader MP Michel Aoun will resign from the new cabinet if it is formed without matching his demands, and that the rest of the March 8 parties will do the same in solidarity with him, creating a caretaker cabinet once more.

"The March 8 parties began discussing the position they would take when President Michel Suleiman calls for parliamentary consultations to nominate a new PM-designate to replace Tammam Salam," the report added.

Efforts to form a new government reached an impasse last week when the FPM rejected the proposed rotation of ministerial portfolios, which would have seen the party lose control of the Energy Ministry - currently under the stewardship of Gebran Bassil.

The deadlock comes weeks after Future Movement leader MP Saad Hariri announced that he would be willing to join his arch-foe Hezbollah in a unity government consisting of 24 ministers.

Suleiman has said in the past that he will green-light a neutral government if efforts to form a unity cabinet fail, a move that Hezbollah and its March 8 allies oppose.