Amman - Hundreds of Jordanian trade unionists staged a sit-in before the Egyptian embassy Wednesday to press for the re-opening of the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt and for lifting the blockade imposed on the Palestinian people there by Israeli troops.

The demonstrators chanted slogans and raised placards urging the Egyptian government to allow the entry of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory and permit the sick to cross the border for treatment.

They also called on Arab governments and the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas "to give priority to the lifting of the Gaza siege", in implementation of a decision taken in this respect recently by Arab foreign ministers.

Tel Aviv  - Dozens of radical Jewish settlers clashed again with Israeli police and soldiers in the southern West Bank city of Hebron Wednesday evening.

Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police forces used stun grenades against some 40 rioters who had gathered in an area around a disputed house, despite it having been declared a "closed military zone."

He said another seven settlers were taken in for questioning.

Tel Aviv  - Eight Israeli soldiers were injured late Friday in a mortar attack from the Gaza Strip on an army base in southern Israel, ynet online news agency reported.

The report said six mortars were fired on the base in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, two of which hit the base. The other four landed in fields near the base.

The Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility, but the radical Hamas movement said its al-Qassam Brigades military wing carried out the attack in retaliation for a clash with Israeli forces in Gaza that injured four of its militants.

The Israeli forces said a patrol had discovered Palestinian militants planting bombs at the border post earlier Friday near Khan Younis.

Cairo  - Arab foreign ministers met in Cairo on Wednesday to find out ways to support the Palestinian talks after Islamist group Hamas refused to attend the Cairo-brokered reconciliation talks.

In his opening speech, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal warned that Israel was the sole beneficiary of the rivalry between Palestinians, which spared Israel the trouble of moving forward in the peace process.

"If we don't want to accuse anyone of hindering the peace process, then at least we are required to remind all parties involved of one fact: That we must not forget that the sole beneficiary of the rivalry between Palestinians is Israel," Faisal said.

Manama, Bahrain  - The speaker of the Syrian People Assembly, Mahmoud al-Abrash, said on Tuesday that allegations of a secret military nuclear programme by his country were fabricated.

"There are attempts to accuse Syria of having a military nuclear programme despite all the assurances and the reality on the ground that prove that Syria has no nuclear programme," al-Abrash told repoters in Manama at the end of an official two-day visit to Bahrain.

"We don't have a nuclear program but we have a plan that aims to rid the region of mass destruction weapons and we are honestly pointing out the fact that Israel is the country with the largest arsenal of mass destruction weapons in the region."

New York  - The continued fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants has become the "biggest challenge" to the political talks aimed at resolving the conflict, the United Nations said Tuesday.

"Recent developments in the occupied Palestinian territories and in Israel underscores that the gap between the political tracks and the situation on the ground remain large, posing considerable obstacles in the path that lies ahead," UN Undersecretary General for Political Affairs B Lynn Pascoe said.