Israel is willing to begin new peace talks using the 1967 lines as a basis for negotiations, if the Palestinians drop their U.N. membership bid, an Israeli government official confirmed on Tuesday.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official confirmed that Israel has been working with Washington and members of the international peace-making Quartet to draw up a new framework that could re-launch stalled talks.

Tensions ran high in China's remote Kashgar city Tuesday after authorities shot dead two men suspected of fomenting deadly ethnic unrest and vowed a further crackdown on "religious extremists".

Police killed the men, both from the mainly Muslim Uighur minority that makes up around half the population of China's northwestern Xinjiang region, late Monday as they were trying to capture the pair, Kashgar authorities said.

The cabinet is expected to approve on Tuesday a draft-law on the delineation of Lebanon’s maritime borders which would be referred to parliament for the final green light the next day.

The parliamentary Public Works, Transport, Energy and Water Committee approved the 18-article draft law proposed by the committee’s chairman MP Mohammed Qabbani.

Israeli troops deployed 10 tanks and bulldozers before midnight Monday and began erecting earth mounds at the technical fence in the Wazzani area where they clashed with Lebanese troops the same day.

Media reports said Tuesday that the move led to a state of alert among Lebanese and UNIFIL troops on Army Day.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he believed that the exchange of fire between Israeli and Lebanese troops on Monday was more likely to be the result of a mix-up than a deliberate attempt by the Lebanese military to raise tensions.

"We don't understand the reason for this," he told Israeli public radio.

Calls mounted for an emergency U.N. meeting on Syria Monday after troops killed nearly 141 people in one of the deadliest days so far and the regime praised the army for "foiling" the country's enemies.

Rights activists said Sunday's death toll included at least 100 when the army stormed the flashpoint protest city of Hama, scene of a 1982 Islamist revolt that was put down by deadly force, killing an estimated 20,000 people.

North Korea said Monday it wanted an early resumption of six-party nuclear negotiations following "constructive" talks with the United States last week.

The North "remains unchanged in its stand to resume the six-party talks without preconditions at an early date" and comprehensively implement a September 2005 denuclearization deal, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

Austria said Saturday it could send peacekeeping troops to Lebanon by the end of the year, as part of the UNIFIL mission here, following a request by New York.

"The (Austrian) army has built up expertise and experience in the region. A second pillar in the Middle East, on top of the Golan mission, is definitely conceivable," Defense Minister Norbert Darabos said in a statement.

Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon discussed the impasse in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and the situation in the West Bank and Gaza, in Lebanon and the region, said a U.N. spokesman.

"The secretary general urged an early resumption of meaningful Israeli-Palestinian negotiations," Spokesman Martin Nesirky said Friday.

A minibus ran over a roadside bomb Friday in southern Afghanistan, killing all 18 passengers, police said.

"The mine was very powerful and destroyed the vehicle," said Kamaluddin Sherzai, deputy police chief in the southern Helmand province. "They were all civilians. Some were children."