Tens of thousands of Moroccans took to the streets of Casablanca on Sunday in the largest opposition protest since an Islamist-led government took office, reflecting mounting tensions over unemployment and other social woes.

The protest was organized by trade unions which accuse Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane of failing to deliver on the pledges of social justice that brought his party to power in the wake of the Arab Spring.

Thousands of Jews from Morocco, Israel and other parts of the world have over the past week carried out an annual pilgrimage to the Islamic nation to honor celebrated rabbis.

Morocco may not be the likeliest of Jewish pilgrim destinations, but the North African nation has for centuries had a vibrant Jewish population and some 1,200 of the faith's pious ancestors are buried in cemeteries there.

Morocco said Saturday it had broken up a "terrorist network" active in several cities in the country and that had links to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

The network is "led by a leading figure of Mujahideen of Morocco", a little known group with ties to international terror groups, the ministry said.

Islamist militants have offered to free a British-South African hostage if London allows radical cleric Abu Qatada to choose a country for his extradition, U.S. monitoring service SITE said.

Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) also threatened that Britain would "open the door of evil" unto its country and people should it send the imam back to his native Jordan where he faces jail, the report said.

South Africa on Tuesday accused U.N. Security Council powers of "conveniently" ignoring human rights abuses in the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

The council again rejected growing demands for the U.N. peacekeeping force in the Moroccan-controlled territory to have a permanent rights investigation duty.

With a White House meeting, talks at a think-tank, and interviews with newspapers, Islamists unshackled by the Arab Spring are launching a new charm offensive to reassure a nervous Washington.

The rise to power of elected Islamists in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere has alarmed many Americans, who fear the emergence of Iran-style theocracies that would deny the rights of women and minorities and antagonize Israel.

Libya wants Mauritania to extradite Abdullah al-Senussi, the arrested spymaster of slain dictator Moammar Gadhafi who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, the government said on Saturday.

"Telephone calls are underway by Libyan authorities to request his extradition," spokesman Salah al-Manaa told a news conference in Tripoli.

Police arrested Thursday a Moroccan man suspected of having links to al-Qaida and planning terrorist attacks on targets including a synagogue in Milan, Italy's counter-terrorism unit said.

"A 20-year-old Moroccan man was arrested at dawn, after investigators discovered messages he had posted on websites talking about a possible attack on sensitive targets," said the unit's head in Cagliari, Alfonso Polverino.

Rabat has condemned an alleged plot to bomb the U.S. Capitol over which a Moroccan suspect was arrested, the official MAP agency reported Monday.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Friday arrested Amine el-Khalifi, a 29-year-old immigrant from Morocco living illegally in the U.S. state of Virginia, in a sting operation.

Algeria proposed Saturday to boost cooperation with North African neighbors against terror and organized crime as the five-nation Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) held its first high-level conference since 1996.

Algeria sought "true and effective Maghreb cooperation in the fields of terrorism, organized crime, illegal arms and drug trafficking and clandestine immigration," Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci told counterparts in Rabat.