The United States wants the rival parties in Bahrain's political crisis to hold talks on resolving the two-year deadlock in their country, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday.

"Progress has been made" in Bahrain, he told reporters in Doha, the last leg of a regional tour. "What I did was encouraging ... dialogue (to continue) and to reach a resolution."

Iran rejected Tuesday claims by the Gulf Cooperation Council that it is interfering in the grouping's internal affairs, insisting that Tehran stays away from domestic issues of other countries.

"Iran's intervention in Bahrain's affairs is a claim contrary to reality and it is made in order to escape from the real problems and will bear no results," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said at his weekly press conference.

Bahrain's national dialogue, aimed at resolving the political deadlock in the kingdom, is in trouble due to major disagreements between the government and the Shiite-led opposition, participants said Monday.

The opposition insists that representatives of the king should join the talks due to the fact that the Sunni Al-Khalifa monarchy which rules Shiite-majority Bahrain "monopolizes all powers" in the tiny Gulf state.

A Qatari appeals court on Monday reduced to 15 years the prison sentence handed to a poet accused of incitement against the regime after a lower court had jailed him for life, his lawyer said.

"My client was sentenced today to 15 years in prison," Mohammed Nejib al-Naimi told Agence France Presse, adding that the case will now be taken to the court of cassation for the final decision.

Qatar is ready to pay a $5 million ransom to free the Lebanese pilgrims, who were kidnapped in Syria on May 22, unnamed sources told An-Nahar daily Friday.

General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim is following up closely on the controversial file and has met with President Michel Suleiman three times in ten days after his visit to Qatar and Turkey in January.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati reiterated on Thursday that Lebanon is keen on the best of relations with Arab countries and rejects meddling in their internal affairs.

During a meeting with a delegation of diplomats from Gulf Cooperation Council countries at the Grand Serail, Miqati stressed “the best of ties with the friendly Arab countries and mainly GCC states.”

British Foreign Secretary William Hague discussed Syria's bloody conflict on Wednesday with Qatar's crown prince during a visit to the gas-rich Gulf country, the official QNA news agency reported.

Qatar's Crown Prince Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani met with Hague in Doha, where they "discussed cooperation between their countries as well as regional developments, mainly in Syria," said QNA.

Qatar has rejoined a public competition to develop the former Athens airport, one of the prized sites of Greece's privatization drive, a Greek spokesman said on Wednesday.

The emirate "has signed the confidentiality agreement and is returning to the Hellinikon tender," government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou told To Vima radio.

Qatar has handed the Syrian embassy building in Doha to the National Coalition, Syria's main opposition group, a statement said on Wednesday.

"Qatar has decided to hand over the Syrian embassy building in Doha to Mr Nizar al-Haraki after his appointment as ambassador to Doha for the National Coalition," the Coalition statement said.

Famous composer Marcel Khalife enthralled a Qatari audience with his Arab Spring-inspired suite "Oriental" in Doha, presented in collaboration with the Philharmonic Orchestra he helped set up in 2007.

The late Sunday performance aimed "to echo the cries of the Arab people for freedom," said the 62-year-old composer, whose latest work brings together tunes from the traditional Iraqi maqam musical style, mixed with others from the Levant, North Africa, Egypt and Andalusia.