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.

Beirut  - Lebanon's Western-backed Prime Minister Fouad Seniora has agreed with Iranian officials to draw up a framework for bilateral cooperation between the two nations ahead of a possible visit by Seniora to Tehran, a governmental source said Monday.

Mohammad Shibani, Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, met with the prime minister over the weekend and renewed his invitation for Seniora to visit Tehran, the source, who requsted anonymity, said.

Dubai, 8th Dec. 2008 -- By no means can the Middle East region be perceived today as one that is stable, prosperous or more democratic. By no measure could the region be categorised as being more secure. And by all measures, many policies carried out by the current US administration have played a role in bringing about such a state of affairs, a UAE daily paper asked today.

''The recent statement by George W. Bush with regard to US policies in the Middle East should not come as a surprise. Regardless of the numerous failures of American foreign policy in the region, Bush still blindly defends faulty stances, wrote Gulf News in its comment today.

Jerusalem  - An Israeli ministerial committee approved Sunday the release of 230 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice.

All the prisoners to be freed are identified with President Mahmoud Abbas' secular Fatah movement, an Israeli government statement said, and none were jailed for action in which people were killed.

The full Israeli cabinet decided on the prisoner release on November 30.

Jerusalem  - Violence by Israeli settlers in Hebron against local Palestinians last week and over the weekend was a "pogrom" and had to be stopped, acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday.

"I have no other definition for what we saw but a pogrom. We are the sons of a nation which knows what a pogrom is, and I'm saying this after much thought. I have no other way to put it," he was quoted by the Ynet news site as telling his ministers at the start of Sunday's weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem  - US secretary-of-state designate Hillary Clinton has promised Israeli Prime Minsiter Ehud Olmert that she would work for Middle East peace as the next top US diplomat, Olmert's office said Saturday.

Olmert congratulated her on her nomination and the two spoke "at length" about Middle East issues, according to the prime minister's media advisor.