Amman - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Monday met his Jordanian counterpart Salah Bashir to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East and international efforts to enable a peaceful settlement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"Bashir underlined the importance of reviving serious and effective Palestinian-Israeli negotiations at the earliest possible time with a view to reaching a settlement on the basis of the two- state solution, the Arab peace initiative and the relevant UN resolutions," a foreign ministry statement said.

Oslo - The Islamic Council of Norway on Monday distanced itself from remarks attributed to a leading Islamic scholar quoted as saying the Holocaust was a "divine punishment" against the Jews.

Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian-born, Qatar-based scholar made the alleged comments in a speech on the Arab broadcaster al-Jazeera in January, prompting widespread condemnation.

Gaza City - An explosion in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia killed a Palestinian man and wounded five others, hospital officials told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Monday.

The cause of the explosion in the al-Atatrah neighbourhood was not immediately clear. Some residents said it was caused by an Israeli tank shell, while other reports said it was a "work accident," a euphemism for an accidental blast caused by militants handling explosives.

Hospital officials identified the dead man as Rajab Sabbah. They said three of the wounded were in critical condition.

An Israeli military spokesman in Tel Aviv denied any army activity in the area.

Tel Aviv  - Palestinian militants fired two Gaza-made rockets at southern Israel Monday, an Israeli military spokesman in Tel Aviv said.

One of the rockets landed near a kibbutz (agricultural commune), while the second had yet to be tracked down.

Another rocket was also fired at the area late Sunday.

Cairo  - Hamas official Mohamed Nasr said on Saturday the militant group had no time frame for reaching a truce with Israel.

"A truce could be announced after an hour or after tomorrow," Nasr told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa in a phone interview.

Earlier reports from Egypt stated that a truce could be reached on Saturday. Nasr, who is part of a Hamas delegation in Egypt, said his group would not link any truce to the fate of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured by Hamas in 2007.

Tel Aviv/Gaza  - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Saturday that his government will not agree to any ceasefire arrangement with the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip unless captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is freed.

With the two sides appearing further apart on Saturday than in recent days, Hamas also accused Israel of rejecting any truce that had a time limit, as the Islamist organization that rules the Gaza Strip had previously offered.