Beirut, Lebanon (CNN) -- Lebanon's president has postponed consultations with parliament members to appoint a new prime minister, the presidential palace announced Monday.
The decision to delay talks by a week was announced moments before President Michel Suleiman was to begin meeting with lawmakers.
This small country by the sea has been plunged into another period of political uncertainty, since a political bloc led by the Shiite militant movement Hezbollah withdrew its representatives from the Cabinet last week.
The move prompted the collapse of the government of the Western-backed leader Saad Hariri, who has stayed on as caretaker prime minister.
In a televised address Sunday night, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah repeated his objections to an international investigation into the 2005 assassination of Hariri's father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Nasrullah had been pressuring the Lebanese government to withdraw its financial and political support from the tribunal, which he claimed was an American-Israeli conspiracy designed to weakened Hezbollah. CNN
