Bangkok  - The Thai cabinet on Tuesday agreed to reduce its military presence around the disputed Preah Vihear temple on the Thai-Cambodian border, but stopped short of ordering a complete retreat.

Sydney  - Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe will not attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics because he was told by China's Communist Party to stay away, the Sydney Morning Herald daily reported on Tuesday.

Citing sources, the paper said that "high-powered lobbying from political leaders who will be attending the ceremony prompted the highest levels of the Chinese Government to convince him not to attend."

Phnom Penh  - Talks between the foreign ministers of Cambodia and Thailand are over for now - at least until Cambodia forms a new government, expected in late September, government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said Monday.

"There will be no more meetings. Wait until the new government is formed," Kanharith said at a press conference for the visit of Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

Moscow  - Russia accused Georgia of using "disproportionate force" in its separatist province of South Ossetia and warned it off inflaming tensions in the region, the foreign ministry said Monday.

Georgia's presidential envoy for conflict resolution rejected the statement as "in fact, an advanced declaration of (potential) war."

Tel Aviv  - Israeli is preparing to transfer to the West Bank Palestinian Fatah activists who fled internecine fighting in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Defence Ministry said Monday.

The move comes amid fierce inter-Palestinian clashes in the Strip between Fatah and Hamas, which administers the enclave. It overturns a previous decision made at the request of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and West Bank-based acting Premier Salam Fayyad to return those fleeing to the salient.

Dhaka  - Thousands of Bangladeshi voters queued Monday in front of heavily guarded polling stations in four cities and nine towns to elect mayors in a landmark move to strengthen local governments, officials said.

The election, hailed as a first step to restore democracy by the army-backed national caretaker government, is the first since a state of emergency was declared in Bangladesh last year.

General elections, which were postponed after last year's violence, are now scheduled for December.