Madrid/Tel Aviv/Rome - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has cancelled a visit to Spain in the coming week amid alleged disagreements over the command of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

The Israeli embassy in Madrid and Spanish diplomatic sources on Friday confirmed the suspension of the visit, which was scheduled for November 4 and 5.

Tel Aviv - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak Thursday welcomed a statement by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that Damascus was ready to resume suspended talks with Israel.

Barak said although Syria continued its support for radical Islamist movements in the region, he believed Assad's call for resuming peace talks was genuine.

"Syria is a cornerstone within any possible stable regional peace agreement," the minister told Israel Radio, adding a peace treaty was both an Israeli and a Syrian interest.

Jerusalem/London, Sep. 30 : A British court has rejected a petition urging an arrest warrant for Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on the grounds that he committed "war crimes" during the IDF offensive in the Gaza Strip earlier this year.

The rejection came after a tense day that included intensive consultations between the foreign ministries in Jerusalem and London, reports the Jerusalem Post.

The court accepted arguments submitted by the British Foreign Office, which said the defense minister was a state guest, and therefore, was not subject to such lawsuits.

Barak was in Britain for talks with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Defense Secretary Bob Ainsworth and Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

Tel Aviv / London  - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak will not change his plans and return to Israel from a visit to Britain, despite an attempt by Palestinian groups to obtain an arrest warrant against him in London, the minister's bureau said Tuesday.

"The minister will not return early to Israel," Barak's bureau told the German Press Agency dpa.

Jerusalem, Sep. 21 : Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has asked the US to work towards halting North Korea''s nuclear weapons program before Iran''s, as the move would have a big influence on the Islamic republic.

"North Korea is developing long-range missiles in the backyard of China and Russia and nothing happens to them," The Jerusalem Post quoted Barak, as saying.

Jerusalem, Aug 5 : Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak has said that his country should back a US plan for peace in the Middle East.

"In the coming weeks, the Americans will conclude their meetings with the various sides in the region and will formulate their position. Afterwards, they will present their plan for a regional peace. I believe that Israel must join in on the up-swing," The Jerusalem Post quoted, Barak as saying.

Jerusalem - Reports on a breakthrough in negotiations to free an Israeli soldier held captive in the Gaza Strip for the past three years were "damaging," Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Sunday.

"The reports on the release of (Gilad) Shalit are incorrect and even damaging," Barak told ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, according to Israeli media reports.

New York  - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak held talks Monday with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the Middle East situation as well as North Korea's nuclear test.

Barak described as "very good" the discussion that centred around the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the situation in Lebanon as it prepares for general elections and the impact of North Korea's nuclear test on the rest of the world.

Jerusalem - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak promised Wednesday to remove unauthorized settlers' outposts in the occupied West Bank, through agreement or by force if necessary.

"If not through dialogue, we will do it with quick and aggressive law enforcement," Barak, of the left-to-centre coalition Labour Party, told settler leaders meeting in Tel Aviv.

He said the new Israeli government of hardline Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he had joined would take action against the outposts, not because it was told to do so by the United States, but because Israel "is a state of law."

Jerusalem, Apr. 28 : Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak has described Iran as the country posing the most central threat not only to the Jewish state, but also to the entire world.

"Iran was "a threat to the entire world, as it is interested in changing the entire international order and is a source of instability in the Middle East and throughout the world," the Jerusalem Post quoted Barak, as saying.

Jerusalem - Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu is returning to the Israeli premiership exactly one decade after he was voted out of what has been described as one of the world's most difficult jobs.

His first term between 1996 to 1999 - when he lost elections to Labour Party leader Ehud Barak, now a key coalition partner - saw a pronounced slowdown in the implementation of the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo peace accords, a process Netanyahu did not support.

Tel Aviv  - Israel Labour Party leader Ehud Barak is the most decorated soldier in Israel's history, but doesn't look the part.

He is pudgy, speaks with a slight lisp, appears stiff and ill-at- ease when facing the television cameras, is regarded as smug, aloof and even - say his many critics - arrogant.

Faced with this perception of their candidate, Barak's advisors have tried to turn his perceived disadvantages into campaign strengths.

Herzlia, Israel  - Diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear programme must be accompanied by a clear timeline, after which harsh sanctions could be imposed, accompanied by a willingness to act, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday.

He told an international conference in Herzlia, north of Tel Aviv, that all options regarding Iran were on the table. "Beyond that I will say nothing," he added.

Tel Aviv  - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak ordered the military to open the country's border crossings with Gaza on Tuesday to allow trucks with basic humanitarian supplies to enter the strip for the fifth time in more than one month.

Some 40 trucks with basic food products and medical supplies of the United Nations and other aid organizations were passing through the Kerem Shalom crossing with southern Gaza, Israel Radio reported.

Israel also opened the Karni crossing for commercial goods with central Gaza to some 30 more trucks transporting grains. Cooking gas and industrial diesel for Gaza's power plant would be allowed in through the Nahal Oz fuel crossing as well, the radio said.

Tel Aviv - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Thursday that a house in Hebron currently occupied by radical settlers would be evacuated and handed over to the army, until its ownership was decided by the courts.

The minister spoke after meeting in Tel Aviv with settler leaders, in an attempt to reach a deal on evacuating the building. According to Israeli media, the settlers asked Barak to delay the evacuation, and work to expedite a court hearing on the ownership of the house.

Tel Aviv  - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has approved dozens of construction projects in the occupied West Bank over the past months, an Israeli newspaper reported Friday.

The vast majority of the projects listed by Ha'aretz are in Jewish settlement blocks which Israel has vowed to keep as part of a future peace deal with the Palestinians.

But some are in isolated settlements located to the east of Israel's West Bank security barrier.

Tel Aviv - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak ordered the crossing points into the Gaza Strip to be shut Thursday, after militants in the salient fired a Qassam rocket at southern Israel.

The rocket, fired from the north of the strip toward the nearby Israeli town of Sderot, caused neither damage nor injuries, an Israeli military spokesman said.

Militants had also fired a rocket on Thursday, causing Barak to take a similar decision regarding the crossing points.

Tel Aviv - Negotiations over the formation of a new Israeli government have made "real progress" and a new coalition agreement between the ruling Kadima party and the Labour party could be signed in the coming days, Israel Radio reported Sunday.

Sources close to Labour Party leader, Defence Minister Ehud Barak, said the progress was achieved during a Saturday night meeting between representatives of the two parties.

A further meeting, to discuss Labour's economic demands, is slated to take place Sunday.

Jerusalem  - Some Arab neighbourhoods of Jerusalem could form the capital of the future Palestinian state, a senior Israeli minister said in an interview Wednesday.

"Our basic position is that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel but that we can find a formula under which certain neighbourhoods, heavily populated Arab neighbourhoods, could become in a peace agreement part of the Palestinian capital that of course will include also the neighbouring villages around Jerusalem," Defence Minister Ehud Barak told the al-Jazeera news channel.