Visiting Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar had discussed with the Egyptian officials on a prisoner swap with Israel as well as the ways to end the Israeli aggression and blockade on the Palestinian territories, the Egyptian news agency MENA reported.

Sudanese President Omer Hassan Ahmed El-Bashir said in Beijing Friday that he expects more armed factions to sign a peace deal to end the conflict in Darfur.

There has been rampant illegal construction in the West Bank, in many cases involving privately owned Palestinian properties, an Israeli settlement monitoring team said Friday.

The newly-designated UN secretary- general, Ban Ki-moon, said in Paris on Friday that he was "encouraged" by the perspective of DPRK's resumption of six-party talks.

The United States was regarded as a threat to world peace by its neighbors and allies, according to an opinion poll published by the Guardian newspaper on Friday.

American National Intelligence Director John Negroponte, who made a surprise visit to Baghdad on Friday, met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Maliki's office said in a statement.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s readiness to resume six-party talks can help ease the tension in the Korean peninsula and restore confidence among the international community in resolving the problem, a Malaysian official said here on Friday.

About 20,000 tribesmen on Friday took a rally in Enayat Killey, 6 kms from Khar, the headquarters of Pakistan's northwestern Bajur agency, to protest against the recent bombing of a religious school, which killed some 80 people.

Russia will not back a European draft resolution at the UN Security Council imposing sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said on Friday.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards test fired three new models of missiles in the ongoing military exercises in the Gulf region, the state-run television reported on Friday.