Jerusalem  - The new Israeli government will hold negotiations with the Palestinian Authority in order to reach a permanent peace agreement, incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday.

Addressing the Knesset as he presented his new government and its guidelines, Netanyahu said he would hold peace talks with the Palestinians on three levels: economic, diplomatic and security. "This joint path is the right path to peace," he declared.

Brussels  - European members of NATO must not slacken their military efforts in the struggle against the radical Islamic Taliban in Afghanistan, outgoing NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Monday.

"Afghanistan is not US President Barack Obama's war. It's our war, the international community's," de Hoop Scheffer said in Brussels during an interview.

Sana'a, Yemen - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh pulled out of the Arab League summit Monday in Doha in protest after his plan for setting up an Arab Union was not discussed, Yemen's state news agency Saba reported.

Saleh "withdrew from the closed-door session and the concluding session of 21st Arab summit in Doha in protest after he was not given the opportunity to read out the Yemeni vision on activating the joint Arab action and the establishment of an Arab Union," Saba reported.

Doha  - Leaders at an Arab League summit in Qatar on Monday were unanimous in their appeals for Arab unity - but that message was almost lost amid high-profile disputes between member states and the sensational appearance of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir despite an international warrant for his arrest.

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mussa, delivering the summit's conclusions, affirmed the 22-member body's support for al-Bashir in his confrontation with the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the UN Security Council.

Sana'a, Yemen  - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh pulled out of the Arab League summit in Doha on Monday in protest after his plan for setting up an Arab Union was not discussed, Yemen's state news agency Saba reported.

Saleh "withdrew from the closed-door session and the concluding session of 21st Arab summit in Doha in protest after he was not given the opportunity to read out the Yemeni vision on activating the joint Arab action and the establishment of an Arab Union," Saba reported.

Arbil, Iraq - A Kurdish parliamentarian on Monday charged that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's description of Iraq as an Arab country was unconstitutional.

Al-Maliki told Arab leaders gathered in Doha, Qatar for the 21st Arab League summit that all Iraqis, regardless of their ethnicity or religion, were agreed that Iraq was an Arab country.

"Al-Maliki's statement ran contrary to the Iraqi constitution," Saad al-Barazanji, deputy head of the Kurdistani Alliance parliamentary bloc, told the Kurdish AKA news agency on Monday.