British Ambassador Tom Fletcher on Monday hailed the Lebanese authorities’ efforts to maintain stability in the country by preventing any repercussions of the Syrian crisis on Lebanon.

Fletcher held a meeting with President Michel Suleiman on Wednesday at the Baabda Palace and discussed bilateral ties, the developments in the region, and the Arab League summit expected to be held in Baghdad on March 29.

Arab foreign ministers met on Wednesday in Baghdad to debate a draft resolution calling on Damascus to end violence and hold talks with the opposition, on the eve of a landmark summit in Iraq.

The Syria crisis, in which monitors say almost 10,000 people have died in a bloody crackdown on a year-long revolt against President Bashar Assad, has loomed large over the first such Arab meetings to be held in Baghdad in over 20 years, which officials insist will tackle a wide variety of regional issues.

Sudanese warplanes bombed oil rich border regions of South Sudan overnight after days of clashes, but fighting on the ground between the rival armies has ceased, a Southern official said Wednesday.

"The ground assaults this morning have stopped but they (Sudan) have still been bombing us in the night," said Gideon Gatpan, information minister for the South's Unity state, the scene of the attack.

China on Wednesday urged Syria's government and opposition factions to honor their commitments, after the regime accepted a proposal crafted by Kofi Annan designed to end the bloody conflict.

The comments came a day after aides to the United Nations and Arab League special envoy said the government of President Bashar Assad had accepted his six-point proposal, a move cautiously welcomed by Western nations.

Long-stalled talks between Iran and world powers are to be revived on April 13 at a place yet to be agreed, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted as saying on Wednesday by official media.

Salehi announced the date as he welcomed visiting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Tehran for a two-day visit focusing on Iran's nuclear program and bilateral ties, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Beijing on Tuesday called on all parties in Syria to cooperate with the mediation efforts of Kofi Annan, as the United Nations and Arab League envoy held talks with Chinese leaders.

"We hope that all parties in Syria can cooperate with Mr. Annan's mediation efforts, in order to create conditions for the political settlement of the Syrian issue," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told journalists.

NATO's bombing campaign against Serbia in 1999 for its crackdown on Kosovo was a "crime", Serbian President Boris Tadic said Saturday as Belgrade mourned its victims.

U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's visit to China to discuss the crisis in Syria, initially scheduled for this weekend, will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Chinese foreign ministry said.

Annan's spokesman had said on Friday he would visit Beijing and Moscow at the weekend for talks in two countries criticized for resisting global efforts to condemn Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The army resumed shelling the central Syrian protest cities of Homs and Hama on Saturday, monitors reported, as international envoy Kofi Annan headed to Russia in the latest push for peace.

Mortar shells rained down on the flashpoint Khaldiyeh district of Homs continuously for two hours in the morning, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, adding that it had no information about casualties.

A senior U.S. official has warned North Korea's upcoming rocket launch would be aimed south for the first time and impact in an area "roughly between Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines".

Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, delivered the message in person to Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Saturday.