Syrian rebels make slow headway in south

AMMAN (Reuters) - The revolt against President Bashar al-Assad first flared in Deraa, but the southern border city now epitomizes the bloody stalemate gripping Syria after 22 months of violence and 60,000 dead.

Jordan next door has little sympathy with Assad, but is wary of spillover from the upheaval in its bigger neighbor. It has tightened control of its 370-km (230-mile) border with Syria, partly to stop Islamist fighters or weapons from crossing.

That makes things tough for Assad's enemies in the Hawran plain, traditionally one of Syria's most heavily militarized regions, where the army has long been deployed to defend the southern approaches to Damascus from any Israeli threat.

The mostly Sunni Muslim rebels, loosely grouped in tribal and local "brigades", are united by a hatred of Assad and range from secular-minded fighters to al Qaeda-aligned Islamists.

"Nothing comes from Jordan," complained Moaz al-Zubi, an officer in the rebel Free Syrian Army, contacted via Skype from the Jordanian capital Amman. "If every village had weapons, we would not be afraid, but the lack of them is sapping morale."

Insurgents in Syria say weapons occasionally do seep through from Jordan but that they rely more on arsenals they seize from Assad's troops and arms that reach them from distant Turkey.

This month a Syrian pro-government television channel showed footage of what it said was an intercepted shipment of anti-tank weapons in Deraa, without specifying where it had come from.

Assad's troops man dozens of checkpoints in Deraa, a Sunni city that was home to 180,000 people before the uprising there in March 2011. They have imposed a stranglehold which insurgents rarely penetrate, apart from sporadic suicide bombings by Islamist militants, say residents and dissidents.

Rebel activity is minimal west of Deraa, where military bases proliferate near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Insurgents have captured some towns and villages in a 25-km (17-mile) wedge of territory east of Deraa, but intensifying army shelling and air strikes have reduced many of these to ruin, forcing their residents to join a rapidly expanding refugee exodus to Jordan, which now hosts 320,000 Syrians.

However, despite more than a month of fighting, Assad's forces have failed to winkle rebels out of strongholds in the rugged volcanic terrain that stretches from Busra al-Harir, 37 km (23 miles) northeast of Deraa, to the outskirts of Damascus.

Further east lies Sweida, home to minority Druze who have mostly sat out the Sunni-led revolt against security forces dominated by Assad's minority, Shi'ite-rooted Alawite sect.

"KEY TO DAMASCUS"

As long as Assad's forces control southwestern Syria, with its fertile, rain-fed Hawran plain, his foes will find it hard to make a concerted assault on Damascus, the capital and seat of his power, from suburbs where they already have footholds.

"If this area is liberated, the supply routes from the south to Damascus would be cut," said Abu Hamza, a commander in the rebel Ababeel Hawran Brigade. "Deraa is the key to the capital."

Fighters in the north, where Turkey provides a rear base and at least some supply lines, have fared somewhat better than their counterparts in the south, grabbing control of swathes of territory and seizing half of Aleppo, Syria's biggest city.

They have also captured some towns in the east, across the border from Iraq's Sunni heartland of Anbar province, and in central Syria near the mostly Sunni cities of Homs and Hama.

But even where they gain ground, Assad's mostly Russian-supplied army and air force can still pound rebels from afar, prompting a Saudi prince to call for outsiders to "level the playing field" by providing anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons.

"What is needed are sophisticated, high-level weapons that can bring down planes, can take out tanks at a distance," Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former intelligence chief and brother of the Saudi foreign minister, said last week at a meeting in Davos.

Saudi Arabia and its fellow Gulf state Qatar have long backed Assad's opponents and advocate arming them, but for now the rebels are still far outgunned by the Syrian military.

"They are not heavily armed, properly trained or equipped," said Ali Shukri, a retired Jordanian general, who argued also that rebels would need extensive training to use Western anti-tank or anti-aircraft weapons effectively even if they had them.

He said two powerful armored divisions were among Syrian forces in the south, where the rebels are "not that strong".

It is easier for insurgents elsewhere in Syria to get support via Turkey or Lebanon than in the south where the only borders are with Israel and Jordan, Shukri said.

Jordan, which has urged Assad to go, but seeks a political solution to the crisis, is unlikely to ramp up support for the rebels, even if its cautious policy risks irritating Saudi Arabia and Qatar, financial donors to the cash-strapped kingdom.

ISLAMIST STRENGTH

"I'm confident the opposition would like to be sourcing arms regularly from the Jordanian border, not least because I guess it would be easier for the Saudis to get stuff up there on the scale you'd be talking about," said a Western diplomat in Amman.

A scarcity of arms and ammunition is the main complaint of the armed opposition, a disparate array of local factions in which Islamist militants, especially the al Qaeda-endorsed Nusra Front, have come to play an increasing role in recent months.

The Nusra Front, better armed than many groups, emerged months after the anti-Assad revolt began in Deraa with peaceful protests that drew a violent response from the security forces.

It has flourished as the conflict has turned ever more bitterly sectarian, pitting majority Sunnis against Alawites.

Since October, the Front, deemed a terrorist group by the United States, has carried out at least three high-profile suicide bombings in Deraa, attacking the officers' club, the governor's residence and an army checkpoint in the city centre.

Such exploits have won prestige for the Islamist group, which has gained a reputation for military prowess, piety and respect for local communities, in contrast to some other rebel outfits tainted by looting and other unpopular behavior.

"So far no misdeeds have come from the Nusra Front to make us fear them," said Daya al-Deen al-Hawrani, a fighter from the rebel al-Omari Brigade. "Their goal and our goal is one."

Abu Ibrahim, a non-Islamist rebel commander operating near Deraa, said the Nusra Front fought better and behaved better than units active under the banner of the Free Syrian Army.

"Their influence has grown," he acknowledged, describing them as dedicated and disciplined. Nor were their fighters imposing their austere Islamic ideology on others, at least for now. "I sit with them and smoke and they don't mind," he said.

The Nusra Front may be trying to avoid the mistakes made by a kindred group, Al Qaeda in Iraq, which fought U.S. troops and the rise of Shi'ite factions empowered by the 2003 invasion.

The Iraqi group's suicide attacks on civilians, hostage beheadings and attempts to enforce a harsh version of Islamic law eventually alienated fellow Sunni tribesmen who switched sides and joined U.S. forces in combating the militants.

Despite the Nusra Front's growing prominence and its occasional spectacular suicide bombings in Deraa, there are few signs that its fighters or other rebels are on the verge of dislodging the Syrian military from its southern bastions.

Abu Hamza, the commander in the Ababeel Hawran Brigade, was among many rebels and opposition figures to lament the toughness of the task facing Assad's enemies in the south: "What is killing us is that all of Hawran is a military area," he said.

"And every village has five army compounds around it."

(Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

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Iran fuel may be part of U.S.-funded Afghan supply deals: report

DUBAI (Reuters) - Fuel purchases made for Afghan security forces using U.S. government funds may have included Iranian petroleum products in violation of U.S. sanctions, investigators said in a report published late on Wednesday.

Afghanistan relies heavily on imported fuel and Iran, Russia, and Turkmenistan are the leading countries of origin, the report by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) says.

But the watchdog said it could not rule out the possibility of sanctions violations in purchases for the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) that are financed by the U.S. taxpayer.

"Despite actions taken by the Department of Defense to prevent the purchase of Iranian fuel with U.S. funds, risks remain that U.S. economic sanctions could be violated," Special Inspector General John Sopko said in the report.

U.S. sanctions intended to starve oil-export dependent Tehran of funds for its disputed nuclear program ban nearly all U.S. trade with Iran, including financing Iranian petroleum product purchases.

Since December Sigar, created by Congress to oversee reconstruction activities in Afghanistan, has investigated allegations of potential sanctions violations in fuel purchasing for the ANSF.

TIGHTENING CONTROLS

It concludes that while the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has made some progress in tightening controls over fuel sourcing for Afghan security services since November, there remains a risk that U.S. taxpayer dollars could continue to flow to Iran.

"DOD is unable to determine if any of the $1.1 billion in fuel purchased for the Afghan National Army (ANA) between fiscal year 2007 and 2012 came from Iran, in violation of U.S. economic sanctions," Sopko said in his report to U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The multinational Combined Security Transition Command (CSTC-A) currently buys fuel - under contracts administered by the U.S. Central Command's Joint Theater Support Contracting Command (CJTSCC) - for Afghan forces from eight separate Afghan importers.

Between 2007 and November 2012, those vendors were not required to provide information on their sources, or certify that their fuel purchases complied with U.S. sanctions on trade with Iran, the report says.

Since late 2012, they have been required to sign contracts that prohibit purchases of supplies from Iran and to certify the origin of the fuel.

BLENDED FUEL

Earlier this month, CJTSCC provided investigators with certificates from four of the eight vendors which said Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan were the "main sources" of fuel they delivered. But it remains unclear whether there is a system to verify the fuel's origin, Sigar said.

Fuel imported from Russia and Turkmenistan is usually blended and the U.S. Embassy in Kabul told Sigar it is possible that fuel blended in Turkmenistan could contain Iranian fuel.

"It is important that adequate measures are in place to test the validity of the certifications and ensure that subcontractors are abiding by the prohibitions regarding Iranian fuel," Sopko said in his concluding remarks.

Washington may need to increase safeguards on its direct assistance funding — expected to exceed $1 billion for ANSF fuel from 2013-2018 — to prevent funds from reaching Iran, he said.

At the end of 2011, Kabul and Tehran signed a trade deal allowing the Afghan government and private sector to buy about 308 million gallons of fuel a year from Iran.

The U.S. Forces-Afghanistan Task Force 2010 is still trying to establish whether any of the eight vendors supplying Afghan security services through the U.S. government contracting system has registered to import fuel from Iran under the terms of that trade deal, the report notes.

For the full report click:

http://www.sigar.mil/pdf/alerts/2013-01-30-alert-sp-13-2.pdf

(Reporting by Daniel Fineren)

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Egypt politicians renounce violence at crisis talks

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's feuding politicians finally met on Thursday, summoned by the country's most influential Islamic scholar who made them call an end to violence after a week of the deadliest protests since President Mohamed Mursi took office.

The meeting, called by the head of the thousand-year-old al-Azhar university and mosque, was attended both by top officials of Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood and secularist foes who had previously rebuffed the Islamist president's calls for talks.

Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb told the politicians that a national dialogue, "in which all elements of Egyptian society participate, without any exclusion, is the only tool to resolve any problems or differences".

"Political work has nothing to do with violence or sabotage and the welfare of everyone and the fate of our nation depends on respect for the rule of law," the sheikh said.

Leaders of all the main political parties signed a document at the meeting renouncing violence, attendee Ahmed Maher said in a Twitter message.

Al-Azhar, one of the main seats of learning in Sunni Islam worldwide, has tended to keep itself above Egypt's political fray. The extraordinary intervention follows a warning by the army chief on Tuesday that street battles could bring about the collapse of the state.

Nearly 60 people have been killed in violent protests, which broke out last week to mark the second anniversary of the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.

SPIRIT OF THE REVOLUTION

The opposition accuses Mursi of betraying the spirit of the revolution by concentrating too much power in his own hands and those of the Brotherhood, a decades-old underground Islamist movement that was banned under Mubarak. The Brotherhood accuses its foes of trying to topple Egypt's first elected leader.

Participants at Thursday's meeting included Mahmoud Ezzat, deputy leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Saad el-Katatni, the head of its political party. Television footage showed them sitting opposite liberal politicians Mohamed ElBaradei and Amr Moussa and leftist Hamdeen Sabahi - all prominent figures in an alliance of parties opposed to Mursi.

ElBaradei is a former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog and Moussa was foreign minister under Mubarak era and then head of the Arab League.

Tayyeb presented the politicians with a document he said had been drawn up by youth activists, which called for them to renounce violence and commit to dialogue.

Leaving the meeting early, liberal politician Ayman Nour described it as "a promising start" towards ending the crisis.

Attending the meeting was a partial reversal for the secularist opposition alliance, which had previously spurned Mursi's call for negotiations, demanding the president first agree to include opponents in a national unity government.

The call for a unity government has also been backed by the hardline Islamist Nour party, in an unlikely alliance of Mursi's critics from opposite ends of the political spectrum.

The Brotherhood rejects a unity government as an attempt by Mursi's foes to take power they could not win at the ballot box.

The crisis forced Mursi to cut short a visit to Europe on Wednesday that had been intended to lure investment to Egypt.

While in Berlin, the president sidestepped calls for a unity government, saying the next cabinet would be formed after parliamentary elections due in April.

The streets have grown quieter in the past few days, and on Wednesday authorities scaled back a curfew imposed by Mursi on three restive cities along the Suez canal where most of the week's blood was spilt.

However, the opposition alliance had called fresh protests for Friday, the Islamic sabbath, which could unleash more violence. It was not immediately clear whether the calls for protest would be affected by the al-Azhar meeting.

The past week's violence followed weeks of demonstrations last year against a new constitution, as Mursi failed to unite Egyptians despite the Brotherhood winning repeated elections.

The rise of an elected Islamist president in the Arab world's most populous state after generations of secularist military rule is probably the most important outcome of the wave of Arab revolts over the past two years.

But his rule has been tarnished by the civil unrest, which has thwarted efforts to end an economic crisis that has forced Cairo to sell off most of its reserves to keep the pound currency from crashing.

Ejijah Zarwan, who analyses Egyptian politics for the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Thursday's intervention by al-Azhar was important, but it was far from clear whether it would be enough to calm the streets.

"It's a good first step. Certainly it will help the formal opposition to be very clearly on record as opposing violence," he said. But a deal among political leaders would not be enough to satisfy Egyptians angry at the failure of the revolution to improve their daily lives.

"The people fighting the police and burning buildings are not partisans of any political party. They might not even vote," Zarwan said. "There's a political crisis and there's a social and economic crisis. A negotiated solution to the political crisis will certainly help but it's just a necessary first step towards resolving the social and economic crisis."

(Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy; Editing by Paul Taylor)

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France backs possible U.N. force in Mali

PARIS (Reuters) - French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Thursday backed the idea of sending a United Nations peacekeeping force into Mali, saying France would play a role in any such plan.

The U.N. Security Council is to begin discussing the possibility of deploying U.N. troops in the stricken West African nation, envoys said of an idea it had previously been uncomfortable with before France's recent military intervention.

The French military on Wednesday took control of the airport in Kidal, the last town held by al-Qaeda-linked rebels, and is planning to quickly hand over to a larger African force, whose task will be to root out insurgents in their mountain redoubts.

U.N. envoys have said sending in a peacekeeping force would offer clear advantages over an African-led force, as it would be easier to monitor human rights compliance and the United Nations could choose which national contingents to use in the force.

"This development is extremely positive and I want this initiative to be carried through," Le Drian said on France Inter radio, adding that France would "obviously play its role".

French has deployed some 4,500 troops in a three-week ground an air offensive, aimed at breaking Islamists' 10-month hold on towns in northern Mali.

After taking back the major Saharan towns of Gao and Timbuktu at the weekend, Le Drian confirmed that troops were still stuck at the airport in Kidal, where bad weather was preventing them from entering the town.

Many are now warning of the risk of ethnic reprisals as displaced black Malians take up arms to return to their liberated towns.

(Reporting By Vicky Buffery; editing by Mark John)

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Dawn attack shook Damascus military complex

AMMAN (Reuters) - The force of the dawn attack on a Syrian military site outside Damascus on Wednesday shook the ground, waking nearby residents from their slumber with up to a dozen blasts, two sources in the area said.

"We were sleeping. Then we started hearing rockets hitting the complex and the ground started shaking and we ran into the basement," said a woman who lives adjacent to the sprawling Jamraya site north-west of the Syrian capital.

The resident, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity over a reported strike in the area by Israel on Wednesday morning, said she could not tell whether the explosions which woke her were the result of an aerial attack.

Details of the strike remain sketchy and, in parts, contradictory. Syria said Israeli warplanes, flying low to avoid detection by radar, crossed into its airspace from Lebanon and struck the Jamraya military research center.

But diplomats, Syrian rebels and regional security sources said the planes hit a weapons convoy heading from Syria to Lebanon, apparently destined for President Bashar al-Assad's ally Hezbollah, and the rebels said they - not Israel - hit Jamraya with mortars.

Another source who has a relative working inside Jamraya reported that a building inside the complex had been cordoned off on Wednesday employees believed it had been hit. Flames could be seen rising from the area after the attack, they said.

"It appears that there were about a dozen rockets that appeared to hit one building in the complex," the source, who also asked not to be identified, told Reuters.

"The facility is closed today," he added.

Israeli newspapers on Thursday quoted foreign media for reports on the strike. Journalists in Israel are required to submit articles on security and military issues to the censor, which has the power to block any publication of material it deems could compromise state security.

MISSILE PROGRAMME

The Jamraya research center is in the town of Jamraya, 8 miles from the border with Lebanon, surrounded by heavily militarized areas including several army bases and artillery sites on the Qasioun mountain range, which overlooks Damascus proper 3 miles to the east.

Diplomats in the Middle East familiar with Jamraya described it as a crucial element of Syria's missile program, and say it also has a chemical weapons facility. There have been no suggestions any chemical weapons were hit in Wednesday's strike.

People who visited Jamraya recently say it is surrounded by walls 3 to 4 meters high and guarded by plain-clothed agents.

They say that recently shabbiha militia forces loyal to Assad deployed around it, and tanks moved into a residential housing section of the facility.

Asked about rebel attacks in the area, they said there had been some attempts to target the tanks with mortars but were not aware of any rebel activity in the last few days.

Three months ago rebels killed 21 elite Republican Guards in an ambush on an army minibus in the district of Qudsayya, just south of Jamraya, activists said.

A statement from the joint military council of the Free Syrian Army described Jamraya as "one of the biggest shabbiha strongholds", where it said Iranian, Russian and Hezbollah members were helping develop chemical and other weapons including 'barrel bombs' used by Assad's air force.

The rebels fired "six 120 millimeter mortars... a big part of (the complex) has been destroyed", it said.

(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny; writing by Dominic Evans; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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French troops deploy in last of Mali rebel strongholds

DOUENTZA, Mali (Reuters) - French troops have taken control of the airport in the northern Malian town of Kidal, the last rebel stronghold in the north, the French army and a local official told Reuters on Wednesday.

Kidal would be the last of northern Mali's major towns to be retaken by French forces, which retook Gao and Timbuktu earlier this week in a campaign to drive al Qaeda-linked Islamists from Mali's north.

"They arrived late last night and they deployed in four planes and some helicopters," Haminy Belco Maiga, president of the regional assembly of Kidal said, adding he had seen no early indications of resistance from rebel forces.

French Armed Forces spokesman Thierry Burkhard confirmed in Paris that French troops were in Kidal and said they had taken control of the airport.

"The operation is continuing," he said, declining to give further details.

It was not immediately clear whether the French troops were accompanied by Malian forces.

Tuareg MNLA rebels who want greater autonomy for the desert north said earlier this week that they had taken control of Kidal after Islamists abandoned the town.

The MNLA, which fought alongside the Islamists before being sidelined by them in mid-2012, was not immediately available for comment on the French deployment.

Kidal is the capital of a desert region with the same name into which Islamist fighters are believed to have retreated during nearly three weeks of French air strikes and a joint advance by thousands of French and Malian ground troops.

AFRICAN FORCE

The offensive in France's former West African colony is aimed at heading off the risk of Mali being used as a springboard for jihadist attacks in the wider region or Europe.

French troops, now numbering 3,500 on the ground, and Malian soldiers retook the Saharan trading towns of Timbuktu and Gao at the weekend virtually unopposed.

Doubts remain about just how quickly an African intervention force, known as AFISMA and now expected to exceed 8,000 troops, can be fully deployed in Mali to track down retreating al Qaeda-allied insurgents in the north.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the French operation was planned to be a lightning mission that would last just a few weeks to avoid getting bogged down.

"Liberating Gao and Timbuktu very quickly was part of the plan. Now it's up to the African countries to take over," he told the Le Parisien daily. "We decided to put in the means and the necessary number of soldiers to strike hard. But the French contingent will not stay like this. We will leave very quickly."

Fabius warned that things could now get more difficult.

"We have to be careful. We are entering a complicated phase where the risks of attacks or kidnappings are extremely high. French interests are threatened throughout the entire Sahel," he said.

(Reporting by Richard Valdmanis, John Irish and Emmanuel Jarry in Paris; Additional reporting and writing by David Lewis; Editing by Jon Boyle)

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Mursi heads to Germany on trip cut back by Egypt crisis

CAIRO/BERLIN (Reuters) - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi flew to Germany on Wednesday to try to convince Europe of his democratic credentials, leaving behind a country in crisis after a week of violence that has killed more than 50 people.

Two more protesters were shot dead before dawn near Cairo's central Tahrir Square on the seventh day of what has become the deadliest wave of unrest since Mursi took power in June.

The Egyptian army chief warned on Tuesday that the state was on the brink of collapse if Mursi's opponents and supporters did not end street battles that have marked the two-year anniversary of the revolt that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Because of the crisis, Mursi has curtailed his European visit, cancelling plans to go to Paris after Berlin. He is due to return to Cairo later in the day.

Near Tahrir Square on Wednesday morning, dozens of protesters threw stones at police who fired back teargas, although the scuffles were brief.

"Our demand is simply that Mursi goes, and leaves the country alone. He is just like Mubarak and his crowd who are now in prison," said Ahmed Mustafa, 28, a youth who had goggles on his head to protect his eyes from teargas.

Opposition politician Mohamed ElBaradei called for a meeting between the president, government ministers, the ruling party and the opposition to halt the violence. But he also restated the opposition's precondition that Mursi first commit to seeking a national unity government, which the president has so far rejected.

Mursi's critics accuse him of betraying the spirit of the revolution by keeping too much power in his own hands and those of his Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement banned under Mubarak which won repeated elections since the 2011 uprising.

Mursi's supporters say the protesters want to overthrow Egypt's first democratically elected leader. The unrest has prevented a return to stability ahead of parliamentary elections due within months, and worsened an economic crisis that has seen the pound currency tumble in recent weeks.

The worst violence has been in the Suez Canal city of Port Said, where rage was fuelled by death sentences passed against soccer fans for deadly riots last year. Mursi responded by announcing on Sunday a month-long state of emergency and curfew in Port Said and two other Suez Canal cities.

Protesters have ignored the curfew and returned to the streets. Human Rights Watch called for Mursi to lift the decree.

Mursi will be keen to allay the West's fears over the future of the most populous Arab country when he meets German Chancellor Angela Merkel and powerful industry groups in Berlin.

"DISTURBING IMAGES"

"We have seen worrying images in recent days, images of violence and destruction, and I appeal to both sides to engage in dialogue," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in a radio interview on Wednesday ahead of Mursi's arrival.

Germany's "offer to help with Egypt's transformation clearly depends on it sticking to democratic reforms", he added.

Germany has praised Mursi's efforts in mediating a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza after a conflict last year, but became concerned at Mursi's efforts to expand his powers and fast-track a constitution last year.

Berlin was also alarmed by video that emerged in recent weeks showing Mursi making vitriolic remarks against Jews and Zionists in 2010 when he was a senior Brotherhood official. Germany's Nazi past and strong support of Israel make it highly sensitive to anti-Semitism.

Mursi's past anti-Jewish remarks were "unacceptable", Westerwelle said. "But at the same time President Mursi has played a very constructive role mediating in the Gaza conflict."

Egypt's main liberal and secularist bloc, the National Salvation Front, has so far refused talks with Mursi unless he promises a unity government including opposition figures.

"Stopping the violence is the priority, and starting a serious dialogue requires committing to guarantees demanded by the National Salvation Front, at the forefront of which are a national salvation government and a committee to amend the constitution," ElBaradei said on Twitter.

Those calls have also been backed by the hardline Islamist Nour party - rivals of Mursi's Brotherhood. Nour and the Front were due to meet on Wednesday, signaling an unlikely alliance of Mursi's critics from opposite ends of the political spectrum.

Brotherhood leader Mohamed El-Beltagy dismissed the unity government proposal as a ploy for the Front to take power despite having lost elections. On his Facebook page he ridiculed "the leaders of the Salvation Front, who seem to know more about the people's interests than the people themselves".

German industry leaders see potential in Egypt but are concerned about political instability: "At the moment many firms are waiting on political developments and are cautious on any big investments," said Hans Heinrich Driftmann, head of Germany's Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

Mursi's supporters blame the opposition for preventing an economic recovery by halting efforts to restore stability. The opposition says an inclusive government is needed to bring calm.

"The economy depends on political stability and political stability depends on national consensus. But the Muslim Brotherhood does not talk about consensus, and so it will not lead to any improvement in the political situation, and that will lead the economy to collapse," said teacher Kamal Ghanim, 38, a protester in Tahrir Square.

(Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh and Marwa Awad in Cairo, Stephen Brown and Gernot Heller in Berlin and Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Giles Elgood and Paul Taylor)

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Israel hits target in Syria border area: sources

LONDON (Reuters) - Israeli forces have attacked a target on the Syrian-Lebanese border overnight, a Western diplomat and three regional security sources said on Wednesday, at a time of growing concern in the Jewish state over the fate of Syrian chemical and conventional weapons.

The sources, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, had no further information about what might have been hit or where precisely the attack happened.

The Lebanese army reported a heavy presence of Israeli jets over its territory throughout the night.

"There was definitely a hit in the border area," one security source said. A Western diplomat in the region who asked about the strike said "something has happened", without elaborating.

An activist in Syria who works with a network of opposition groups around the country said that she had heard of a strike in southern Syria from her colleagues but could not confirm.

Israel's Vice Premier Silvan Shalom said on Sunday that any sign that Syria's grip on its chemical weapons was slipping, as President Bashar al-Assad fights rebels trying to overthrow him, could trigger Israeli intervention.

Israeli sources said on Tuesday that Syria's advanced conventional weapons would represent as much of a threat to Israel as its chemical arms should they fall into the hands of Syrian rebel forces or Hezbollah guerrillas based in Lebanon.

Israel has sent its national security adviser, Yaakov Amidror, to Russia and its military intelligence chief Major-General Aviv Kochavi to the United States for consultations, Israeli media said.

In Jerusalem, the Israeli military declined any comment.

"We do not comment on reports of this kind," an Israeli Defense Force spokeswoman said.

Vice Premier Silvan Shalom, on Israel Radio, was asked if there was unusual activity on the northern front.

"The entire world has said more than once that it takes developments in Syria very seriously, developments which can be in negative directions. And therefore the world, led by President Obama who has said this more than once, is taking all possibilities into account and of course any development which is a development in a negative direction would be something that needs stopping and prevention."

(Editing by Ralph Boulton)

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Russia scraps law enforcement deal with U.S. in new blow to ties

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia scrapped a law enforcement agreement with the United States on Wednesday, further turning back the clock on a "reset" in relations since President Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin last year.

An order to end the deal, signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, was posted on the government's website. It said the agreement, under which Washington provides financial assistance for law enforcement and drugs control programs, "does not address current realities and has exhausted its potential".

Lawmaker Alexei Pushkov, a Putin ally who heads the parliamentary committee on international affairs, welcomed the move.

"Russia is reformatting its relationship with the USA: this is already the third agreement cancelled in the last half-year. We are saying farewell to our dependence on 'Power No. 1'," he said on Twitter.

Since Putin's return to the Kremlin in May, his foreign policy rhetoric has become increasingly focused on external threats, including from the United States which Russia has accused of trying to meddle in Russian politics.

Moscow was infuriated by a U.S. human rights bill that barred Russians accused of human rights abuses from entering the United States and freezed any assets they have there.

It responded with a bill in December imposing similar measures and banned the adoption of Russian children by American families, clouding what was left of the "reset" in ties hailed by U.S. President Barack Obama at the start of his first term.

Moscow also outlawed U.S.-funded "non-profit organizations that engage in political activity" and last October ordered the U.S. Agency for International Development to cease operations in Russia, saying Washington was using the mission to interfere in politics.

The government statement on Wednesday said Russia's Foreign Ministry had been told to inform U.S. authorities about the withdrawal from the 11-year-old law enforcement agreement. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow declined immediate comment.

REDUCING U.S. INFLUENCE

Russia announced last October that it was withdrawing from a decades-old agreement under which Washington helped it dismantle nuclear and chemical weapons. Russia argued it now had the power and finances to carry out disarmament itself.

Dmitry Trenin, director at the Carnegie Moscow Center think tank, said Putin was playing on Russians' patriotism by portraying Washington as a meddling foreign power in an attempt to cast dissenters as traitors working for an outside threat.

"Mr. Putin's goal is to reduce as much as he can U.S. influence on Russia internally," he said.

"I'm sure there will be a lot of damage but they believe the pay-off will be bigger: whoever opposes the leadership here will be seen as a fifth column who is doing the bidding of the United States, unpatriotic at minimum and very likely a traitor."

Several members of a protest movement against Putin, which started after allegations of vote rigging after a 2011 parliamentary election, have been portrayed by the media as being on the payroll of foreign countries.

The United States withdrew from a bilateral civil society group earlier this month to protest against what it said was Moscow's clampdown on civil rights and public activism.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the U.S. human rights bill, named after lawyer Sergei Magnitsky who died in detention in 2009, as "odious", but said Moscow wants constructive ties with the United States.

Trenin said that while Russia was likely to continue to reduce the United States' presence in the country, Moscow was unlikely to cut major initiatives. Russia allows the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force to use a rail route through its territory to transport equipment.

He added that some of recent deal-breaking with the United States was being driven by a desire to shed its image as an aid recipient.

(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska)

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U.N.'s Ban decries "horrors" in Syria, urges end to war

KUWAIT (Reuters) - Denouncing "unrelenting horrors" in Syria's war, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealed on Wednesday for an end to the violence and more aid to address a situation he said was catastrophic and worsening by the day.

"How many more people will be killed if the current situation continues?" Ban said, addressing a donors conference in Kuwait aimed at raising money for U.N. humanitarian work.

"I appeal to all sides and particularly the Syrian government to stop the killing ... in the name of humanity, stop the killing, stop the violence," the U.N. leader said.

Syrian opposition activists said at least 65 people were found shot dead with their hands bound in the embattled northern city of Aleppo on Tuesday, the latest reported massacre over the course of 22 months of conflict.

They blamed militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, while the government blamed the Islamist rebel Nusra Front. It was impossible to confirm who was responsible given Syria's restrictions on access for independent media.

More than 60,000 people have been killed in all, according to a U.N. estimate, since the conflict began as a peaceful movement for democratic reform and escalated into an armed rebellion after Assad tried to crush the unrest by force.

An official of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a grouping of six Gulf Arab states, said a total of $1 billion had been pledged at the meeting by midday, after promises of $300 million each from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

The United Nations warned on Monday that without more money it would not be able to help millions of Syrians and appealed for donations at the aid conference to meet its $1.5 billion target.

Four million Syrians inside the country need food, shelter and other aid and more than 700,000 more are estimated to have fled to countries nearby.

SCALE OF CRISIS ESCALATES

King Abdullah of Jordan told the gathering that Syrians had taken refuge in his country in their hundreds of thousands but Amman's ability to help was at its limits. "We have reached the end of the line, we have exhausted our resources," he said.

U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said that Syrian agriculture was in crisis, hospitals and ambulances had been damaged and even painkillers were unavailable.

Harsh winter weather had made matters worse, and people lack winter clothes, blankets and fuel, with women and children particularly at risk, she said, adding:

"We are watching a human tragedy unfold before our eyes."

The conference was seeking pledges of $1 billion of aid for Syria's neighbors hosting refugees and another $500 million to fund humanitarian work for 4 million Syrians afflicted by the civil war inside the country.

The aid would fund operations for the first half of this year, but the United Nations has so far received pledges covering just 18 percent of the target, unveiled last month as the scale of Syria's humanitarian crisis escalated sharply.

Even if pledges are made, aid groups have found in the past that converting promises into hard cash can take time.

Nevertheless, there was early positive news for the gathering when the oil-rich states of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE each pledged $300 million in aid.

Kuwait's emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, told the meeting "horrifying reports" of violence had raised questions about Syria's future and aid efforts had to be redoubled.

SEXUAL VIOLENCE, DETENTIONS

But Ban said much more remained to be done. "The situation in Syria is catastrophic and getting worse every day," he said.

"Every day Syrians face unrelenting horrors," he said, including sexual violence and detentions.

Iran, a close ally of Assad, said the blame for the humanitarian crisis lay with opposition fighters who had come to Syria from abroad.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said the government and its Syrian opponents should "sit and talk and form a transitional government".

"Those who are causing these calamities are mercenaries who have come to Syria from outside the country," he said. For an interactive timeline on Syria, please click on http://link.reuters.com/rut37s

(Reporting by Sylvia Westall, Ahmed Hagagy, Sami Aboudi, Mahmoud Habboush and Mirna Sleiman; Writing by William Maclean; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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UK ups offer for Mali, African anti-Islamist effort

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain on Tuesday boosted its offer of aid to help France fight Islamist rebels in Mali, and pledged troops to help other African governments in the region counter a rising tide of Islamist radicalism.

Up to 240 British troops could be deployed as part of two missions to train African troops, 40 in Mali as part of a European Union mission, and a further 200 in anglophone West African countries, Prime Minister David Cameron's spokesman said.

At least 70 more British personnel could be involved in logistical and support missions. "It is an African operation in support of the Malian government and we think that the right way to do this is for regionally-led forces to take the lead," the spokesman said, adding Britons would take no combat role.

The increased logistical support for France includes a ferry to transport troops and equipment to Africa, and allowing France and its allies to use Britain for air-to-air refueling.

Britain has also offered to set up a "Combined Joint Logistics Headquarters" in Mali, but France believes such a facility is not needed, Cameron's spokesman said, adding it would be kept under review.

A decision on whether to send up to 200 British soldiers on West African training missions is expected to be taken soon after African Union-led discussions in Addis Ababa, while talks are taking place in Brussels over troops for Mali.

(Reporting by Mohammed Abbas; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

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Passenger plane crash kills 21 in Kazakhstan

KYZYL TU, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - A passenger plane crashed in thick fog near Kazakhstan's commercial capital Almaty on Tuesday and broke into pieces when it hit the ground, killing all 21 people on board.

After several hours, rescue teams recovered the plane's flight recorder, the central communications service for Kazakhstan's president said on its Twitter page.

A list published by the prosecutor-general's office showed there had been 16 passengers and five crew members on board.

The Canadian-built Bombardier Challenger CRJ-200 belonged to private Kazakh airline SCAT. It came down near the village of Kyzyl Tu about 5 km (3 miles) from Almaty's airport.

"There was no fire, no explosion. The plane just plunged to the earth," Yuri Ilyin, deputy head of the city's emergencies department, told Reuters near the scene.

Parts of the plane could be seen in the thick snow. Tractors and other heavy vehicles were being used cut paths through the snow to the wreckage but journalists were kept at a distance from the crash site.

It was the second fatal plane crash in the former Soviet republic in just a over a month.

Visibility at Kyzyl Tu was only about 20 to 30 meters (yards), and much of the area around Almaty was veiled in fog when the plane crashed at around 1 p.m. (2 a.m. ET).

"The preliminary cause of the accident is bad weather," Deputy Almaty Mayor Maulen Mukashev told reporters. "Not a single part of the plane was left intact after it came down."

The plane had been on its way from the city of Kokshetau in northern Kazakhstan to Almaty in the southeast, Mukashev said.

SCAT, which has been operating since 1997, runs an extensive domestic service and has some international flights.

Alexander Gordeyev, deputy head of Almaty's airport, said the weather had been bad but planes were being allowed to land.

A military transport airplane crashed in bad weather on December 25 near the southern Kazakh city of Shymkent, killing all 27 on board. Prosecutors have said a combination of technical problems, bad weather and human error caused that accident.

(Additional reporting and writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Louise Ireland and Timothy Heritage)

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Niger gives green light to U.S. drone deployment: source

NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger has given permission for U.S. surveillance drones to be stationed on its territory to improve intelligence on al Qaeda-linked Islamist fighters in northern Mali and the wider Sahara, a senior government source said.

The U.S. ambassador to Niger, Bisa Williams, made the request at a meeting on Monday with President Mahamadou Issoufou, who immediately accepted it, the source said.

"Niger has given the green light to accepting American surveillance drones on its soil to improve the collection of intelligence on Islamist movements," said the source, who asked not to be identified.

The drones could be stationed in Niger's northern desert region of Agadez, which borders Mali, Algeria and Libya, the source said.

A spokesperson for the United States' African Command (AFRICOM) declined to comment.

The United States already has drones and surveillance aircraft stationed at several points around Africa. Its only permanent military base is in the small country of Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, more than 3,000 miles from Mali.

After her talks with Issoufou, Williams told reporters they had discussed economic and military cooperation and development issues. She also expressed Washington's appreciation for the French-led military mission to expel an alliance of al Qaeda-linked fighters from northern Mali.

French and Malian troops retook control of the ancient trading town of Timbuktu on Monday, as they drove deep into the heart of the desert region the size of Texas seized by Islamist fighters last year.

Washington has provided military transport planes to airlift men and equipment into Mali but said it will not send combat troops.

The head of the U.S. Africa Command, General Carter Ham, visited Niger last month. The poor, landlocked West Africa state has said it wants to have closer security cooperation with Washington.

(Reporting by Abdoulaye Massalatchi, Additional reporting by John Irish in Paris; Writing by Daniel Flynn. Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)

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Army says political tussle taking Egypt to brink

CAIRO, Egypt (Reuters) - Egypt's army chief said political strife was pushing the state to the brink of collapse - a stark warning from the institution that ran the country until last year as Cairo's first freely elected leader struggles to contain bloody street violence.

General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, appointed by President Mohamed Mursi last year to head the military, added in a statement on Tuesday that one of the primary goals of deploying troops in cities on the Suez Canal was to protect the waterway that is vital for Egypt's economy and world trade.

Sisi's comments, published on an official army Facebook page, followed 52 deaths in the past week of disorder and highlighted the mounting sense of crisis facing Egypt and its Islamist head of state who is struggling to fix a teetering economy and needs to prepare Egypt for a parliamentary election in a few months that is meant to cement the new democracy.

Violence largely subsided on Tuesday, although some youths again hurled rocks at police lines in Cairo near Tahrir Square.

It seemed unlikely that Sisi was signaling the army wants to take back the power it held for six decades since the end of the colonial era and through an interim period after the overthrow of former air force chief Hosni Mubarak two years ago.

But his message sent a powerful message that Egypt's biggest institution, with a huge economic as well as security role and a recipient of massive direct U.S. subsidies, is worried about the fate of the nation, after five days of turmoil in major cities.

"The continuation of the struggle of the different political forces ... over the management of state affairs could lead to the collapse of the state," said General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is also defense minister in the government Mursi appointed.

He said the economic, political and social challenges facing the country represented "a real threat to the security of Egypt and the cohesiveness of the Egyptian state" and the army would remain "the solid and cohesive block" on which the state rests.

Sisi was picked by Mursi after the army handed over power to the new president in June once Mursi had sacked Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, in charge of Egypt during the transition and who had also been Mubarak's defense minister for 20 years.

RALLY AT FUNERALS

After almost seven months since Mursi took office, Egypt politics have become even more deeply polarized.

Opponents spurned a call by Mursi for talks on Monday to try to end the violence. Instead, protesters have rallied in Cairo and Alexandria, and in the three Suez Canal cities - Port Said, Ismailia and Suez - where Mursi imposed emergency rule.

On Tuesday, thousands were again on the streets of Port Said to mourn the deaths of two people in the latest clashes there, taking the total toll in Mediterranean port alone to 42 people. Most were killed by gunshots in a city where weapons are rife.

Mohamed Ezz, a Port Said resident speaking by telephone, heard heavy gunfire through the night. "Gunshots damaged the balcony of my flat, so I went to stay with my brother," he said.

Residents in the three canal cities had taken to the streets in protest at a nightly curfew now in place there.

In Cairo on Tuesday afternoon, police again fired teargas as stone-throwing youths in a street near Tahrir Square, the centre of the 2011 uprising. But the clashes were less intense than previous days and traffic was able to cross the area. Street cleaners swept up the remains of burnt tires and other debris.

Street flare-ups are a common occurrence in divided Egypt, frustrating many people desperate for order and economic growth.

Although the general's comments were notably blunt, Egypt's military has voiced similar concerns in the past, pledging to protect the nation. But it has refused to be drawn back into a direct political role after its reputation as a neutral party took a pounding during the 17 months after Mubarak fell.

"Egyptians are really alarmed by what is going on," said Cairo-based analyst Elijah Zarwan, adding that the army was reflecting that broader concern among the wider public.

"But I don't think it should be taken as a sign that the military is on the verge of stepping in and taking back the reins of government," he added.

In December, Sisi offered to host a national dialogue when Mursi and the rivals were again at loggerheads and the streets were aflame. But the invitation was swiftly withdrawn before the meeting went ahead, apparently because the army was wary of becoming embroiled again in Egypt's polarized politics.

LEGITIMACY CHALLENGED

Protests initially flared during the second anniversary of the uprising that erupted on January 25, 2011 and toppled Mubarak 18 days later. They have been exacerbated by riots in Port Said where residents were angered when a court sentenced to death several people from the city over deadly soccer violence.

Since the 2011 revolt, Islamists who Mubarak spent his 30-year rule suppressing have won two referendums, two parliamentary elections and a presidential vote.

But that legitimacy has been challenged by an opposition that accuses Mursi of imposing a new form of authoritarianism. Mursi's supporters says protesters want to overthrow Egypt's first ever democratically elected leader by undemocratic means.

The army has already been deployed in Port Said and Suez and the government agreed a measure to let soldiers arrest civilians as part of the state of emergency. Sisi reiterated that the army's role would be support the police in restoring order.

The instability has provoked unease in Western capitals, where officials worry about the direction of a powerful regional player that has a peace deal with Israel. The United States condemned the bloodshed and called on Egyptian leaders to make clear violence was not acceptable.

Mursi's invitation to rivals to a national dialogue with Islamists on Monday was spurned by the main opposition National Salvation Front coalition, which described it as "cosmetic".

The only liberal politician who attended, Ayman Nour, told Egypt's al-Hayat channel after the meeting ended late on Monday that attendees agreed to meet again in a week.

He said Mursi had promised to look at changes to the constitution requested by the opposition but did not consider the opposition's request for a government of national unity. Mursi's pushing through last month of a new constitution which critics see as too Islamic remains a bone of contention.

When Mursi announced he was imposing a state of emergency on the Suez Canal cities he pledged to confront threats to security "with force and firmness." But Some activists said Mursi's measures to try to impose control could backfire.

"Martial law, state of emergency and army arrests of civilians are not a solution to the crisis," said Ahmed Maher of the April 6 movement that helped galvanize the 2011 uprising. "All this will do is further provoke the youth. The solution has to be a political one that addresses the roots of the problem."

(Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh and Omar Filmy in Cairo, Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia and Abdelrahman Youssef in Alexandria; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

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Dozens found with hands bound in Syria's Aleppo: group

BEIRUT (Reuters) - At least 65 people, apparently shot in the head, were found dead with their hands bound in a district of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Tuesday, a pro-opposition monitoring group said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll could rise as high as 80 in what it called a "new massacre". It was not clear who carried out the killings.

Photos posted online by activists showed the muddied bodies of about a dozen men lying by a small river in what they said was the Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood of Aleppo.

Close-up shots of some of the corpses showed they had what appeared to be gunshot wounds to the head.

Government forces and rebels in Syria have both been accused by human rights groups of carrying out summary executions in the 22-month-old conflict, which has claimed more than 60,000 lives.

Rebels pushed into Aleppo, Syria's most populous city, over the summer, but have been stuck in a stalemate with government forces. The city is divided roughly in half between the two sides.

(Reporting by Alexander Dziadosz and Oliver Holmes; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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Egypt's Mursi declares emergency after clashes kill dozens

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi declared a month-long state of emergency in three cities on the Suez Canal, where dozens of people have been killed in protests that have swept the nation and deepened a political crisis facing the Islamist leader.

Hundreds of demonstrators in Port Said, Suez and Ismailia turned out against the decision within moments of Mursi's announcement late on Sunday, which came after the death toll from protests and violence that erupted last week hit 49.

Mursi also called for a national dialogue with his rivals for later on Monday, but the early response from members of the main opposition coalition suggested they saw little point, saying the president only seemed to listen to his allies.

Most deaths have been in Port Said, where 40 were killed in just two days. Riots were sparked on Saturday when a court sentenced to death several people from the city on charges related to deadly rioting at a soccer match last year. Mourners at Sunday's funerals in the port, where guns are common, directed their anger at Mursi.

Violence in Egypt's cities has extended to a fifth day. Police fired volleys of teargas at dozens of youths hurling stones on Monday near Cairo's Tahrir Square, where opponents have camped for weeks to protest against Mursi, who they say betrayed the revolution that ousted Hosni Mubarak two years ago.

"We want to bring down the regime and end the state that is run by the Muslim Brotherhood," said Ibrahim Eissa, a 26-year-old cook, protecting his face from teargas wafting towards him from police lines near Tahrir, the cauldron of the 2011 revolt.

Propelled to power in a June election by the Brotherhood, Mursi's presidency has lurched through a series of political crises and violent demonstrations, compounding his task of shoring up a teetering economy and preparing for a parliamentary election to cement the new democracy in a few months.

"The protection of the nation is the responsibility of everyone. We will confront any threat to its security with force and firmness within the remit of the law," Mursi said, offering condolences to families of victims in the canal zone cities.

"WASTE OF TIME"

Appealing to his opponents, the president called for a national dialogue on Monday at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT), inviting a range of Islamist allies as well as liberal, leftist and other opposition groups and individuals to discuss the crisis.

The main opposition National Salvation Front coalition gathered in Cairo to discuss a response, but several members have already suggested they do not expect much from the meeting, raising the prospect of poor attendance.

"Unless the president takes responsibility for the bloody events and pledges to form a government of national salvation and a balanced committee to amend the constitution, any dialogue will be a waste of time," Mohamed ElBaradei, a prominent politician who founded the Constitution Party, wrote on Twitter.

Hamdeen Sabahy, a leftist politician and presidential candidate who is another leading member of the Front, said he would not attend Monday's meeting "unless the bloodshed stops and the people's demands are met".

Ahmed Said of the liberal Free Egyptians Party said Mursi's tone on Sunday night was more threatening than conciliatory. "Egypt is in danger and completely split," he told Reuters.

Egypt's politics has become deeply polarized. Although Islamists have swept to victory in a parliamentary poll and presidential vote, the disparate opposition has been united by Mursi's bid late last year to expand his powers and fast-track a constitution with an Islamist hue through a referendum.

Mursi's opponents accuse him of listening only to his Islamist friends and reneging on a pledge to be a president for all Egyptians. Islamists say their rivals want to overthrow by undemocratic means Egypt's first freely elected leader.

The Front has distanced itself from the latest flare-ups but said Mursi should have acted far sooner to impose extra security measures that would have ended the violence.

BLAMING MURSI

"Of course we feel the president is missing the real problem on the ground, which is his own policies," spokesman Khaled Dawoud said. "His call to implement emergency law was an expected move, given what is going on, namely thuggery and criminal actions."

Even in Tahrir, some protesters said violence and the high death toll in Port Said and other cities on the strategic Suez waterway meant there was little choice but to impose emergency law, although they, too, blamed Mursi for fury on the streets.

"They needed the state of emergency there because there is so much anger," said Mohamed Ahmed, 27, a protester walking briskly from a cloud of teargas spreading into Tahrir Square.

However, activists in the three cities affected have pledged to defy the curfew that will start at 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) each evening and last until 6 a.m. (0400 GMT).

Some opposition groups have also called for more protests on Monday, which marks the second anniversary of one of the bloodiest days in the revolution that erupted on January 25, 2011, and brought an end to Mubarak's iron rule 18 days later.

Rights activists said Mursi's declaration was a backward step for Egypt, which was under emergency law for Mubarak's entire 30-year rule. His police used the sweeping arrest provisions to muzzle dissent and round up opponents, including members of the Brotherhood and even Mursi himself.

Heba Morayef of Human Rights Watch in Cairo said the police, still hated by many Egyptians for their heavy-handed tactics under Mubarak, would once again have the right to arrest people "purely because they look suspicious", undermining efforts to create a more efficient and respected police force.

"It is a classic knee-jerk reaction to think the emergency law will help bring security," she said. "It gives so much discretion to the Ministry of Interior that it ends up causing more abuse, which in turn causes more anger."

(Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh in Cairo and Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia; Editing by Will Waterman)

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France fears Islamist rise in Syria unless opposition helped

PARIS (Reuters) - France's foreign minister said on Monday Syria risks falling into the hands of Islamist militant groups if supporters of the Syrian opposition do not do more to help it in a 22-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

Addressing the opening of a conference in Paris with senior members of the Syrian National Coalition, Laurent Fabius said the meeting must focus on making the opposition politically and militarily cohesive to encourage international assistance.

"Facing the collapse of a state and society, it is Islamist groups that risk gaining ground if we do not act as we should," he said. "We cannot let a revolution that started as a peaceful and democratic protest degenerate into a conflict of militias."

Western concern over the growing strength of jihadist militants fighting autonomously in the disorganized ranks of anti-Assad rebel forces is rising. This has hindered international aid to the moderate Syrian National Coalition opposition and may push it more into the arms of conservative Muslim backers, diplomatic sources say.

The meeting, which brought together Western and Arab nations and the three vice-presidents of the coalition, aims to tackle the lack of cohesion that has led to broken promises of aid.

Coalition vice-president Riad Seif said "time is not on our side" and that the opposition no longer wanted pledges of support that would not be followed through on.

"We need an interim or transitional government to provide assistance to millions of Syrians in liberated zones and to help bring the collapse of the (Assad) regime," he said.

"From the beginning we said we should be based in Syria, but so far we haven't received any money to run a government."

HALF A BILLION DOLLARS

Since its formation in November, the coalition has failed to gain traction on the ground in Syria and its credibility has been undermined by its inability to secure arms and cash.

Seif said the coalition lacked the financial or military means to set up within Syria and support civilians on the ground. "We are looking with our friends at how we can protect the liberated zones with defensive weapons and we are discussing how to get billions of dollars to create a budget," he said.

"But if we don't have this budget there is no point having a government. It makes no sense."

George Sabra, another coalition vice-president, said the coalition needed at least $500 million to launch a government.

But its disunity - it failed last week to form a transitional government [ID:nL6N0AQ0RX] - has deterred the West from boosting assistance, especially sophisticated arms and ammunition insurgents are crying out for.

"We also need weapons. We needed them from the first minute," Sabra said. "At the last meeting of Friends of Syria, they recognized our rights to defend ourselves. (But) what does that mean if we cannot provide help to victims?"

The insurgents have seized territory in the north and east of Syria, including several border crossings, and made some inroads into Assad's dominance in major cities. But Assad's air power and far superior weaponry have limited rebel advances.

France said last week there was no sign Assad was about to be overthrown, reversing previous statements that he could not hold out long, while Jordan's King Abdullah said the authoritarian Syrian leader would consolidate his grip for now.

Fabius said the Paris meeting had three objectives: to address the needs of the vulnerable Syrian population, pursue internal structuring, bring opposition fighting units of the Free Syrian Army under its political authority and prepare the post-Assad transition.

However, he sidestepped the question of arming the rebels, underlining the wariness of Western countries about spreading weapons to Islamists in Syria and across the volatile region.

The European Union is set to review its arms embargo on Syria at the end of February.

(Reporting By John Irish; Editing by Vicky Buffery and Mark Heinrich)

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French seal off Mali's Timbuktu, rebels torch library

GAO, Mali (Reuters) - French and Malian troops on Monday sealed off Timbuktu, a UNESCO World Heritage site, after fleeing Islamist rebel fighters torched several buildings in the ancient Saharan trading town, including a priceless manuscript library.

Without a shot being fired to stop them, 1,000 French soldiers including paratroopers and 200 Malian troops seized the airport and surrounded the centuries-old Niger River city, looking to block the escape of al Qaeda-allied fighters.

The retaking of Timbuktu followed the swift capture by French and Malian forces at the weekend of Gao, another major northern Malian town which had also been occupied by the alliance of Islamist militant groups since last year.

A two-week intervention by France in its former Sahel colony, at the request of Mali's government but also with wide international backing, has driven the Islamist rebel fighters northwards out of towns into the desert and mountains.

A French military spokesman said the assault forces at Timbuktu were being careful to avoid combat inside the city so as not to damage cultural treasures and mosques and religious shrines in what is considered a seat of Islamic learning.

But Timbuktu's mayor, Ousmane Halle, reported that fleeing Islamist fighters had torched a South African-funded library in the city containing thousands of priceless manuscripts.

"The rebels set fire to the newly-constructed Ahmed Baba Institute built by the South Africans ... this happened four days ago," Halle Ousmane told Reuters by telephone from Bamako. He said he had received the information from his chief of communications who had travelled south from the city a day ago.

Ousmane was not able to immediately say how much the concrete building had been damaged. He added the rebels also torched his office and the home of a member of parliament.

The Ahmed Baba Institute, one of several libraries and collections in the city containing fragile ancient documents dating back to the 13th century, is named after a Timbuktu-born contemporary of William Shakespeare and houses more than 20,000 scholarly manuscripts. Some were stored in underground vaults.

The French and Malians have faced no resistance so far at Timbuktu, but they face a tough job of combing through the labyrinth of ancient mosques and monuments and mud-brick homes between alleys to flush out any hiding Islamist fighters.

"We have to be extremely careful. But in general terms, the necessary elements are in place to take control," French army spokesman Lieutenant Thierry Burkhard said in Paris.

Timbuktu member of parliament El Hadj Baba Haïdara told Reuters in Bamako the Islamist rebels had abandoned the city. "They all fled. Before their departure they destroyed some buildings, including private homes," he said.

The United States and European Union are backing the French-led Mali operation as a strike against the threat of radical Islamist jihadists using the West African state's inhospitable Sahara desert as a launch pad for international attacks.

They are helping with intelligence, airlift of troops, refueling of planes and logistics, but do not plan to send combat troops to Mali.

FRANCE: MALI "BEING LIBERATED"

"Little by little, Mali is being liberated," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told France 2 television.

At Gao, more than 300 km (190 miles) east of Timbuktu, jubilant residents danced to music in the streets on Sunday to celebrate the liberation of this other ancient Niger River town from the sharia-observing rebels.

A third northern town, the Tuareg seat of Kidal, in Mali's rugged and remote northeast, remains in the hands of the Islamist fighters, a loose alliance that groups AQIM with Malian Islamist group Ansar Dine and AQIM splinter MUJWA.

With its cultural treasures, Timbuktu had previously been a destination for adventurous tourists and international scholars.

The world was shocked by its capture on April 1 by Tuareg desert fighters whose separatist rebellion was later hijacked by Islamist radicals who imposed severe sharia law.

Provoking international outrage, the Islamist militants who follow a more conservative Salafist branch of Islam destroyed dozens of ancient shrines in Timbuktu sacred to moderate Sufi Moslems, condemning them as idolatrous and un-Islamic.

They also applied amputations for thieves and stoning of adulterers under sharia, while forcing women to go veiled.

On Sunday, many women among the thousands of Gao residents who came out to celebrate the rebels' expulsion made a point of going unveiled. Other residents smoked cigarettes and played music to flout the bans previously set by the Islamist rebels.

"THREAT OF TERRORISM"

As the French and Malian troops push into northern Mali, African troops from a U.N.-backed continental intervention force expected to number 7,700 are being flown into the country, despite severe delays due to logistical problems.

Outgoing African Union Chairman President Thomas Boni Yayi of Benin at the weekend scolded AU states for their slow response to assist Mali while former colonial power France took the lead in the military operation.

Yayi put the cost of the African intervention force, now revised upwards, at $1 billion and said up to 10 African countries may be required to send troops.

Burkina Faso, Benin, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Niger and Chad are providing soldiers. Burundi and other nations have pledged to contribute.

The AU is expected to seek hundreds of millions of dollars in logistical support and funding for the African Mali force at a conference of donors to be held in Addis Ababa on Tuesday.

Yayi also urged other NATO members and Asian countries to follow France's lead and send troops to Mali. "We have to free the Sahel belt from the threat of terrorism," he said.

(Additional reporting by Richard Valdmanis in Sevare, Mali, Bate Felix in Dakar, Alexandria Sage and Emmanuel Jarry in Paris, Tiemoko Diallo in Bamako, Richard Lough and Aaron Masho in Addis Ababa; Writing by Pascal Fletcher)

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Militants attack oil pipeline in Algeria, two dead: source

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Islamist militants are suspected of attacking an oil pipeline on Monday in the Algerian region of Djebahia, some 70 km (45 miles) east of the capital Algiers, killing two Algerian guards, a security source told Reuters.

The region is a stronghold of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and is where its leader Abdelmalek Droukdel is believed to be based, the source said, adding seven people had been wounded in the attack.

"In comparison to the In Amenas attack, this is a very minor event," the source said, referring to the hostage crisis at a gas plant in the Algerian desert earlier this month.

(Reporting by Lamine Chikhi; Editing by Alison Williams)

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World powers seek Iran atom talks in February

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - World powers have asked Iran to hold a new round of talks over its nuclear work in February, while expressing disappointment over Tehran's reluctance to schedule negotiations.

A spokesman for the EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Monday Iran had not agreed to her proposal, issued on behalf the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany, to meet at the end of January.

"Iran did not accept our offer to go to Istanbul on January 28 and 29 and so we have offered new dates in February," Michael Mann told a news briefing in Brussels.

"We have continued to offer dates since December. We are disappointed the Iranians have not yet agreed," he said.

The next round of discussions had originally been slated for January but progress has been beset by wrangling between the two sides.

Iranian officials deny they are to blame for the delays and say Western countries are responsible for waiting until after the U.S. presidential election in November, which resulted in lost opportunities.

"We have always said that we are ready to negotiate until a result is reached and we have never broken off discussions," state news agency IRNA quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi as saying on Monday.

The six counties, known collectively as P5+1, met Iranian negotiators in three rounds of talks last year but made no breakthrough.

Iran has refused to halt all uranium enrichment and demanded relief from international economic sanctions before it takes any steps. But it has previously suggested it may be willing to halt higher-grade enrichment - a central concern - if its needs are met and its right to enrich is formally recognized.

Ashton is overseeing diplomatic contacts on behalf of the powers hoping to persuade Tehran to scale back its nuclear work. The six powers are concerned Iran is seeking to reach the capability to build nuclear weapons, but Tehran denies that.

Mann said, however, that Iranian negotiators have put up new conditions for resuming negotiations but that EU powers were concerned that might be a delaying tactic.

Salehi has suggested holding the next round of talks in Cairo but that the P5+1 wanted to meet elsewhere. He also said Sweden, Kazakhstan and Switzerland have offered to host the talks.

(Reporting by Justyna Pawlak and Adrian Croft; Additional reporting by Marcus George in Dubai; editing by Rex Merrifield)

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Third bomb attack in 24 hours kills eight Afghan police

KABUL (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed eight policemen in Afghanistan's volatile southern province of Kandahar, police said on Sunday, the third deadly attack by insurgents against police in 24 hours.

Twenty police have been killed across Afghanistan since midday on Saturday, a level of violence that underlines concern over how the 350,000-strong Afghan security forces will manage once most NATO-led troops withdraw by the end of next year.

In the latest attack, the police in Kandahar had just finished defusing a roadside bomb and had arrested three men suspected of being Taliban insurgents when the blast occurred late on Saturday.

"As they were leaving the area another bomb went off near their vehicle, killing eight policemen and two suspects," said Kandahar Police Chief Abdul Raziq.

Six police and a third Taliban suspect were wounded.

That blast came hours after 10 police officers, including the provincial counter-terrorism chief, were killed in an attack in northern Kunduz province. Another two police were killed in a bombing in eastern Ghazni province.

Eleven years into the NATO-led war against Taliban insurgents, violence has been increasing against Afghan security forces, sparking concern that they will not be able to take over all security responsibilities by the middle of this year.

(Reporting By Hamid Shalizi; Writing by Dylan Welch; Editing by Amie Ferris-Rotman and Paul Tait)

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French, Malians reach Timbuktu in rebel-held north: source

BAMAKO/SEVARE, Mali (Reuters) - French and Malian troops advancing against Islamist rebels in northern Mali have reached Timbuktu, the fabled Saharan trading town occupied last year by al Qaeda-allied fighters, a Malian military source said on Sunday.

"They've gone past Niafounke and since yesterday evening are at the gates of Timbuktu," the source, who asked not to be named, told Reuters in Bamako. The French and Malians had not so far encountered any resistance from the rebels at Timbuktu.

The source said the advancing troops had paused outside to prepare a strategy for entering the town, a labyrinth of ancient mosques and monuments and mud-brick homes, and for flushing out any Islamist fighters who might still be hiding inside.

The United States and Europe are backing the U.N.-mandated Mali operation as a counterstrike against the threat of radical Islamist jihadists using the West African state's inhospitable Sahara desert as a launching pad for international attacks.

Following relentless French air strikes against Islamist rebel positions and vehicles, the fast-moving French-led military offensive in Mali on Saturday seized Gao, the largest town in the north which had also been held by the rebels.

Malian and French officials said the mayor of Gao, Sadou Diallo, who had taken refuge in Bamako during the Islamist occupation, had been reinstalled at the head of the local administration while French, Malian, Chadian and Nigerien troops secured the town and the surrounding area.

As the French and Malian troops push into northern Mali, where another major Saharan town, Kidal, also remains in rebel hands, African troops from a continental intervention force expected to number 7,700 are being flown into the country, despite delays due to logistical problems.

(Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo in Bamako, Richard Valdmanis in Sevare, Mali and Joe Bavier in Abidjan; Writing by Pascal Fletcher)

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Egyptian youths, police clash in fourth day of violence

CAIRO (Reuters) - Police fired teargas at dozens of stone-throwing protesters in Cairo on Sunday in a fourth day of street clashes that have killed at least 42 people and compounded the challenges facing President Mohamed Mursi.

In the worst violence, security sources said 33 people died in Port Said on Saturday when protests erupted after a court sentenced 21 people, mostly from the city, to death for their role in a deadly stadium disaster last year.

Thousands of mourners joined funeral processions for the dead in Port Said on Sunday, a witness said by telephone, adding that he heard gunshots and the sound of emergency vehicle sirens. But there were no immediate reports of new casualties.

Mursi's opponents have also taken to the streets across Egypt since Thursday, accusing him and his Islamist allies of betraying the uprising that overthrew Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

"None of the revolution's goals have been realized," said Mohamed Sami, a protester in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Sunday.

"Prices are going up. The blood of Egyptians is being spilt in the streets because of neglect and corruption and because the Muslim Brotherhood is ruling Egypt for their own interests."

On a bridge close to Tahrir Square, youths hurled stones at police in riot gear who fired teargas to push them back towards the square, the cauldron of the uprising that erupted on January 25, 2011 and toppled Mubarak 18 days later.

The latest protests were initially timed to mark Friday's anniversary of that revolt.

The U.S. and British embassies, both close to Tahrir, said they were closed for public business on Sunday.

The violence adds to the daunting task facing Mursi as he tries to fix a beleaguered economy and cool tempers before a parliamentary election expected in the next few months which is supposed to cement Egypt's transition to democracy.

It has exposed a deep rift in the nation. Liberals and other opponents accuse Mursi of failing to deliver on economic promises and say he has not lived up to pledges to represent all Egyptians. His backers say the opposition is seeking to topple Egypt's first freely elected leader by undemocratic means.

DIVISIONS

The army, Egypt's interim ruler until Mursi's election in June, was sent back onto the streets to restore order in Port Said and Suez, another port city on the Suez Canal where at least eight people have been killed in clashes with police.

In Port Said, residents had reported gunshots overnight and shops and many workplaces were shut on Sunday. Residents said the city had been tense ahead of the funerals amid fears the burials could set off further violence.

Many Egyptians are frustrated by the regular escalations that have hurt the economy and their livelihoods.

"They are not revolutionaries protesting," said taxi driver Kamal Hassan, 30, referring to those gathered in Tahrir. "They are thugs destroying the country."

The National Defence Council, headed by Mursi, has called for a national dialogue to discuss political differences.

That offer has been cautiously welcomed by the opposition National Salvation Front. But the coalition has demanded a clear agenda and guarantees that any agreements will be implemented.

The Front, formed late last year when Mursi provoked protests and violence by expanding his powers and driving through an Islamist-tinged constitution, has threatened to boycott the parliamentary poll and to call for more protests if a list of demands is not met, including having an early presidential vote.

Egypt's transition has been blighted from the outset by political rows and turbulence on the streets that have driven investors out and kept many tourists away, starving the economy of vital sources of hard currency.

Egypt's defense minister who also heads the army, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, called for the nation to stand together and said the military would not prevent peaceful protests. But he called on demonstrators to protect public property.

Clashes in Port Said erupted after a judge sentenced 21 men to death for involvement in 74 deaths at a soccer match on February 1, 2012 between Cairo's Al Ahly club and the local al-Masri team. Many of the victims were fans of the visiting team.

There were 73 defendants in the case. Those not sentenced on Saturday will face a verdict on March 9, the judge said.

Al Ahly fans cheered the verdict after threatening action if the death penalty was not meted out. But Port Said residents were furious that people from their city were held responsible.

(Additional reporting by Shaimaa Fayed in Cairo and Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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Fire at nightclub kills more than 200 in Brazil

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil (Reuters) - At least 200 people were killed in a nightclub fire in southern Brazil on Sunday after a band's pyrotechnics show set the building ablaze, and fleeing patrons were unable to find the emergency exits, local officials said.

Bodies were still being removed from the Kiss nightclub in the southern city of Santa Maria, Major Gerson da Rosa Ferreira, who was leading rescue efforts at the scene for the military police, told Reuters.

Local officials said 180 people were confirmed dead, and Ferreira said the death toll would rise above 200. He said the victims died of asphyxiation or from being trampled, and that there were possibly as many as 500 people inside the club when the fire broke out at about 2:30 a.m.

Television footage showed people sobbing outside the club, while shirtless firefighters used sledge hammers and axes to knock down an exterior wall to open up an exit.

"It was really fast. There was a lot of smoke, really dark smoke," survivor Aline Santos Silva, 29, told Globonews TV. "We were only able to get out quickly because we were in a VIP area close to the door."

President Dilma Rousseff cut short a visit to Chile and was returning to Brazil following the blaze, her spokesperson said.

Luiza Sousa, a civil police official in Santa Maria, told Reuters the blaze started when a member of the band or its production team ignited a flare, which then set fire to the ceiling. The fire spread "in seconds," Sousa said.

The disaster recalls other incidents including a 2003 fire at a nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island, that killed 100, and a Buenos Aires nightclub blaze in 2004 that killed nearly 200. In both incidents, a band or members of the audience ignited fires that set the establishment ablaze.

Brazil's safety standards and emergency response capabilities are under particular scrutiny as the country prepares to host the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament and the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Rio Grande do Sul state Health Secretary Ciro Simoni said emergency medical supplies from all over the state were being sent to the scene.

Santa Maria is some 186 miles west of the state capital of Porto Alegre. "A sad Sunday!" tweeted Rio Grande do Sul Governor Tarso Genro. He said "all possible measures" were being taken in response and that he was on his way to the scene.

(Additional reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal, Todd Benson and Brian Winter; Editing by Eric Beech)

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Syrian rebels, army clash in Damascus during U.N. visit

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels clashed with forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in southwest Damascus on Sunday, forcing the closure of the main highway to the southern town of Deraa, activists said.

The fighting came as United Nations humanitarian chief Valerie Amos visited Syria ahead of a U.N. aid conference which aims to raise $1.5 billion for millions of people made homeless, hungry and vulnerable by the 22-month-old conflict.

The United Nations says 60,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which started with mainly peaceful protests but spiraled into a civil war in which the mainly Sunni rebels have challenged Assad's control of all Syria's main cities.

In Damascus, the two sides fought around a railway station in the southwestern district of Qadam.

Footage posted on the Internet showed what activists said was a rebel attack on the station. One clip showed plain-clothed gunmen taking cover as gunfire could be heard. Another showed gunmen inspecting buildings by the track after what the narrator describes as the "liberation" of the station.

Another video showed black smoke billowing above concrete buildings, the result of what activists said was an air strike by Assad's air force near the railway terminal.

Syrian media did not comment on the fighting around Qadam and restrictions on independent media make it difficult to verify reports from activists.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based opposition group which monitors the violence in Syria, said jets and army artillery also struck targets in rebel strongholds to the east and south of the capital after fierce clashes there.

Amos, visiting Damascus ahead of Wednesday's U.N. pledging conference in Kuwait for Syria's humanitarian crisis, did not speak to reporters before heading for talks at the Syrian Foreign Ministry.

On Wednesday, Amos said Syrians were "paying a terrible price" for the failure of world powers to resolve the conflict, pointing to 650,000 refugees who have fled the country and the millions affected inside Syria.

"Four million people need help, two million are internally displaced and 400,000 out of 500,000 Palestinian refugees have been affected," she told an economic forum in Switzerland.

The United Nations and aid groups inside Syria, including the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, could not keep pace with the rising number of people in need, she said.

"We must find ways to reach more people, especially in the areas we are still unable to get to, and where there is ongoing fighting," she said.

Last month the United Nations withdrew 25 of its 100 foreign aid workers from Syria as fighting intensified around Damascus, but Amos said the organization remained committed to maintaining aid operations.

Most of the money from the Kuwait pledging conference will go to support neighboring countries hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees, while $519 million is earmarked for aid inside Syria.

(Reporting by Dominic Evans; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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Syrian troops and militia push to take Sunni Homs areas

AMMAN (Reuters) - The Syrian army has stepped up an offensive on opposition Sunni Muslim strongholds in the central city of Homs, bringing in ground forces and loyalist militia to try to secure a major road junction, opposition sources said on Friday.

Around 15,000 Sunni civilians are trapped on the southern and western edge of the city near the intersection of Syria's main north-south and east-west arteries, crucial to let the army travel between Damascus and the Mediterranean coast, opposition campaigners in Homs said.

Rebels said they had moved into new areas of Homs this month to grab more territory, which could explain the offensive. Activists said that rebels had asked them not to report on the advances because it could provoke retaliatory strikes.

But activists in Homs said a barrage of army rocket, artillery and aerial bombardment had killed at least 120 civilians and 30 opposition fighters since Sunday.

In the south, eight members of Syria's military intelligence were killed by an Islamist militant car bomb on Thursday night near the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, opposition activists and a violence monitoring group said on Friday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the bomb was planted by Al-Nusra Front, a rebel unit fighting to oust Assad that the United States has labeled a terrorist group.

"We think the blast might have killed a colonel who has been leading the fight against rebels in the area," Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Britain-based Observatory said. The building targeted is in the town of Saasa, 14 miles (23km) from the frontier with the Golan Heights, he said.

Syrian authorities have banned most independent media, making it difficult to verify such reports on the ground.

The nearly two-year-old conflict has now killed an estimated 60,000 people and a military stalemate has formed while hundreds of thousands of refugees flood into Syria's neighbors.

The Syrian Interior Ministry called on Thursday for Syrian refugees to come home and said they would be guaranteed safety.

A statement on the state news agency SANA said the government was "offering guarantees to all political opposition sides to enter the country ... (and) ... take part in the national dialogue without any query."

Few who left have returned, especially opposition supporters, and Assad said in a speech this month that he would not talk with opposition members he said had betrayed Syria or "gangs recruited abroad that follow the orders of foreigners".

The war has reached every province in the country and fighting has encroached on the heart of the capital Damascus, with residents reporting the daily thud of artillery being fired on rebel-held districts in the outskirts.

U.S. ambassador to Syria Robert Ford told CNN on Thursday that Assad's mother Anisa Makhlouf and his sister Bushra had both moved to the United Arab Emirates. It is not clear why they left.

SHABBIHA BROUGHT IN

Activist Nader al-Husseini, speaking by phone from the western sector of Homs, said at least 10,000 pro-Assad shabbiha militiamen had been brought from the coastal city of Tartous to back up the regular army.

"They go in infantry formations behind the soldiers and their specialty is looting and killing civilians," he said, adding that among dozens killed by the shabbiha were a family of five in the village of Naqira.

Husseini said 100 wounded civilians were trapped in Homs' western neighborhood of Kafar Aya and that the Free Syrian Army rebels had tried to negotiate a deal to evacuate them but failed.

Opposition sources blame shabbiha for the death of more than 100 Sunni men, women and children when they overran a nearby area 10 days ago.

Mostly Sunni Homs, a commercial and agricultural hub 140 km (90 miles) north of Damascus, has been at the heart of the uprising and armed insurgency against Assad and his establishment, composed mostly of Alawites, who follow an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam and comprise about 10 percent of the population. There is a large Alawite minority in Homs.

Syrian authorities have not commented directly on the latest offensive, but official media have in the past referred to the need to 'cleanse' the city of what they described as terrorists who were terrorizing peaceful neighborhoods.

Tareq, another activist, said the fall of Kafar Aya and the adjacent neighborhoods of Jobar and al-Sultaniya would make the position of Sunnis in the city untenable.

"These districts are the front line with Alawite areas from where rebels have been sometimes disrupting the road between Damascus and Tartous. If they fall the Assad army will have carved a big hole to proceed deep into Homs and secure the link to the capital."

(Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes, Mariam Karouny and Reuters TV in Beirut, Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Writing by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

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Venezuela prison riot kills dozens: report

CARACAS (Reuters) - A jail riot in southwestern Venezuela killed dozens of people on Friday, local media reported, the latest incident in the ongoing crisis in the South American nation's crowded prisons.

Violence broke out after news of an inspection to confiscate weapons at the Centro Occidental jail, Prisons Minister Iris Varela said in a statement, without providing a death toll.

Local media reports say between 26 and 54 people were killed and dozens wounded.

A prisons ministry source told Reuters that "many" had been killed, including one national guard officer, but declined to offer more details. The source said the ministry would hold a news conference on Saturday with details.

The violence involved both a struggle between rival gangs for control of the jail and a confrontation between inmates and troops called in to calm the situation, Varela said.

Venezuelan prisons are controlled by armed gangs that have rioted repeatedly over the last several years due to disputes with jail authorities or prison leaders.

"Who is going to be blamed for this new massacre in one of our country's jails? Incompetent and irresponsible government," tweeted opposition leader Henrique Capriles.

The South American nation's 34 prisons were designed to hold around a third of the 50,000 inmates now in them, according to local prison advocacy groups. Many of the prisoners are armed and hundreds are killed each year in riots and gang fights.

A month-long siege occurred in 2011 at El Rodeo prison, just outside the capital of Caracas, when 22 died before some 5,000 soldiers restored order.

(Reporting by Deisy Buitrago and Pablo Garibian, writing by Brian Ellsworth; editing by Philip Barbara)

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