China, the biggest buyer of Iran's oil, has publicly rejected U.S. sanctions aimed at Tehran's energy industry while American allies Japan and South Korea are scrambling to find a compromise to keep critical supplies flowing.

Beijing is buying less Iranian crude this month but analysts say China is unlikely to support an oil embargo. Instead, they say, the smaller purchases might be a tactic aimed at obtaining lower prices as the West squeezes Tehran.

Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents have demanded in negotiations with the U.S. that prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay be transferred to Qatar, an Afghan government spokesman said Friday.

But President Hamid Karzai's government objects strongly to the move and wants the prisoners sent directly to Afghanistan, presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi told Agence France Presse.

France on Thursday urged the Arab League to strengthen its monitoring mission in Syria amid concerns its observers have failed to stem bloodletting in the country.

The French foreign ministry's deputy spokesman, Romain Nadal, also called on the Arab grouping to accept help in organizing the mission, in particular from the United Nations.

The government of Afghanistan on Wednesday gave its blessing to talks between Taliban insurgents and the United States and to the opening of an office for the Islamists in Qatar.

The hardline Taliban announced on Tuesday that they had come to an "initial agreement with relevant sides including Qatar" to set up their first representative office outside Afghanistan.

The Taliban announced on Tuesday that they had come to an "initial agreement" to open their first political overseas office, possibly in Qatar, as part of peace talks with the United States.

In a statement on their purported website "Voice of Jihad,” the Islamists said they had held "preliminary talks with relevant sides including Qatar" to open an office outside Afghanistan, without confirming where it would be.

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya will begin a tour on Sunday, his office said, his first exit from Gaza since Israel and Egypt imposed a siege in 2007.

Sources in his office told AFP that Haniya would visit Egypt and Sudan, after which he plans to go to Qatar, Turkey, Tunisia, and Bahrain.

Qatar branded as "regrettable" on Saturday an airport attack on Russia's ambassador last month, saying ties with Moscow were solid although Russia downgraded relations with the Gulf state.

"Our relations with Russia are solid, strong and important and this regrettable incident will not affect them," Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani told reporters on the sidelines of an Arab League meeting on the Syria crisis.

Afghanistan has recalled its ambassador to Qatar for "consultations", the foreign ministry announced Wednesday in an apparent protest at being left out of talks over the opening of a Taliban office in the Gulf state.

The United States has discussed plans for the Taliban to open an address in Qatar by the end of the year in a move designed to allow the West to begin formal peace talks with the militant group.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon praised on Sunday Lebanon’s condemnation of Friday’s attack against the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, confirmed that he will visit Lebanon in January.

He told Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour that he will visit the country on January 13 and 14.

Iraq said it would try to convince neighboring Syria to accept an Arab League deal to end unrest and head off sweeping economic sanctions, during a visit by the group's chief to Baghdad on Thursday.

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi told journalists in the Iraqi capital that "the ball is in the Syrian court" but warned that if Damascus wanted to avoid sanctions, it would have to sign on to the initiative.