U.S. President Barack Obama's three-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories will begin on March 20, Israel said on Sunday, in the first official announcement of the much-anticipated visit.

A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bureau said Obama was due to arrive Wednesday, March 20, at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv and then head to Jerusalem for talks with President Shimon Peres and a dinner meeting with Netanyahu.

Iran on Sunday repeated its offer to help the United States in finding an ex-FBI agent who went missing while on a trip to the Islamic republic to probe cigarette counterfeiting in the region.

On Friday the United States, arch-foe of Iran, asked again for Tehran's help in finding Robert Levinson who disappeared six years ago from the Gulf island of Kish.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai Sunday cancelled a high-profile press conference in Kabul with new US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, with U.S. officials saying the event was dropped for "security concerns".

A palace official, who declined to be named, said however that the press conference had been cancelled because of "scheduling pressure", without giving further details.

A suicide bomber on a bicycle killed nine people outside the defense ministry in central Kabul on Saturday during a visit to the Afghan capital by new U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

The blast occurred near the main entrance gate to the heavily-guarded ministry, and Taliban militants immediately claimed the attack was timed to send a message to Hagel, who arrived in Kabul late on Friday.

Sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear program are not "the fundamental way" to resolve the crisis, China's foreign minister said Saturday, days after the U.N. tightened measures against Pyongyang.

China is the North's sole major ally and by far its biggest trading partner, including being its primary energy supplier.

Osama bin Laden's son-in-law and former spokesman pleaded not guilty Friday to terrorism charges in New York, where he was brought a week ago after a top secret U.S. operation.

Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, reportedly a 47-year-old Kuwaiti and allegedly a senior propagandist in the al-Qaida network, is accused of conspiring "to kill nationals of the United States."

The Croatian capital has served for months as a transit point for Saudi-financed weapons for Syrian rebels, a local newspaper said on Friday, but the report was swiftly denied by the government.

Some 75 civilian transport planes carrying weapons for the rebels battling the regime of President Bashar Assad took off from Zagreb airport between last November and February, the influential Jutarnji List reported citing unnamed diplomatic sources.

A top Syrian regime official thanked the BRICS group of emerging powers on Friday for its support, which she said had prevented Western military intervention and the "destruction" of the country.

Bouthaina Shaaban, a cabinet-level adviser to Syrian President Bashar Assad, told reporters in New Delhi that Damascus was grateful to the BRICS countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Dissident Syrian ex-premier Riad Hijab issued a new call on Friday for the arming of rebels fighting President Bashar Assad's rule after Western governments again opposed sending more than non-lethal aid.

Hijab, whose shock flight to Jordan with his family last August was the highest-profile defection from the Assad regime, said foreign arms shipments were the sole way to tilt the balance in the two-year-old conflict.

Israeli, Greek and U.S. warships began a joint two-week Mediterranean naval exercise codenamed "Noble Dina" on Thursday, the Israeli military said.

"Noble Dina, one of the navy's scheduled annual exercises, is part of the security cooperation between the Israeli navy and foreign naval forces," a statement said. Israel's military sees it "as an opportunity for mutual learning and for strengthening of the cooperation with its allies."