The United States and Germany won a closely contested race Monday among western nations for U.N. Human Rights Council seats, while the likes of Venezuela and Pakistan secured places without a competitive vote.

Rights groups condemned the "pre-cooked" arrangements by most continental groups at the 193-member U.N. General Assembly which gave council seats to countries whose records have been widely questioned.

Iran stressed on Monday that any decision to hold direct talks with the United States on Tehran's disputed nuclear program would have to be taken by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The two arch-foes have previously held indirect discussions within regional forums on subjects such as the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq but holding direct bilateral talks would be "different," Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters.

The United States is to become the world's top oil producer around 2020, the International Energy Agency said on Monday, overtaking Saudi Arabia until the middle of that decade.

"The recent rebound in U.S. oil and gas production ... is spurring economic activity ... and steadily changing the role of North America in global energy trade," the agency said in its annual outlook on the energy markets of tomorrow.

Iran on Saturday brushed aside newly-imposed U.S. sanctions over media censorship, which it said was essential to preserve "moral values" in the Islamic republic.

Dismissing them as "unimportant", Islamic Culture and Guidance Minister Mohammad Hosseini said the sanctions "against the ministry and the press watchdog are the gift of the new American administration," Mehr news agency reported.

Washington was in shock Saturday after the sudden resignation of CIA chief and ex-U.S. commander in Iraq and Afghanistan, David Petraeus, handing another major challenge to President Barack Obama just three days after his re-election.

Petraeus said he resigned over an extramarital affair, bringing an ignomious end to a highly praised military and government career. It also came shortly before the U.S. spy chief had been due to testify in Congress on the agency's alleged failure to protect a U.S. consulate in Libya from a deadly attack.

The United States plans a $6.7 billion sale of 20 heavy cargo aircraft and five refueling planes to Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon announced Friday, in a deal to be approved by Congress.

The multibillion-dollar deal includes the cost of training, logistical support, parts and associated equipment for the aircraft, said a statement released by the Defense Department's agency for foreign arms sales.

CIA Director David Petraeus resigned Friday from his post, citing an extramarital affair.

"Yesterday afternoon, I went to the White House and asked the president to be allowed, for personal reasons, to resign from my position as D/CIA," Petraeus said in a message to CIA staff.

Iran's defense minister confirmed on Friday a Pentagon claim that two Iranian fighter jets fired on an unarmed U.S. Predator drone in the Gulf last week.

"Last week an anonymous plane entered the space over the territorial waters of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Persian Gulf area which, due to the timely, clever and decisive action of our armed forces, was forced to flee," Ahmad Vahidi was quoted on ISNA as saying.

The Philippines has failed to curb the huge problem of human trafficking in recent years, despite high-profile government efforts and the country's removal from a U.S. watchlist, a U.N. envoy said Friday.

Poor law enforcement and crushing poverty meant many men, women and children were still being trafficked, both internally and overseas, said Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, the U.N.'s Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons.

Washington on Thursday unveiled sanctions against four Iranians and five Iranian bodies, including the communications minister and the culture ministry, for censoring the media and the Internet.

The move against Communications Minister Reza Taghipour came after he was blamed for ordering the jamming of international satellite TV broadcasts and restricting Internet access, a State Department official said.