Moscow  - Russia's upper house of parliament on Wednesday approved a Kremlin bill to lengthen the presidential term from four to six years.

The bill to amend the constitution was backed by 144 senators, a majority in the Federation Council. Only one senator voted against.

The Kremlin-sponsored reform was near-unanimously voted through Russia's lower house, the State Duma, on Friday.

The proposal now faces one last vote, where it must be approved by two thirds of Russia's regional legislatures - most of are dominated by pro-Kremlin party United Russia - to become law.

If passed, it would be the first change to Russia's constitution since the document was drafted 15 years ago after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The Marxist Communist Party of India (CPM) has decided to form an alliance with AIADMK in Tamil Nadu for the next general election.

"In all likelihood, we will have a tie-up with AIADMK," Said a party leader.

The decision is likely to be announced during the party's two-day politburo meeting. The meeting begins on November 29.

CPI has already decided to go with AIADMK.

Earlier both the left parties CPI and CPM have decided to have TDP as alliance partner in Andhra Pradesh.

Washington  - US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has agreed to stay in the job for at least one year of president-elect Barack Obama's administration, ABC News and Politico reported Tuesday, citing unnamed officials.

With Gates staying at the helm, Obama keeps in place a key architect of the troop buildup in Iraq that contributed to the sharp decrease in violence during the past 15 months. It will also help Obama fulfill a pledge to have a bipartisan cabinet.

Gates is a registered independent but has served in numerous Republican administrations. He replaced Donald Rumsfeld as Pentagon chief in December 2006.

Paris  - Lille Mayor Martine Aubry was on Tuesday officially named the new head of the French Socialist Party after a bitter election that badly split the party.

The party's national council officially named the 58-year-old Aubry the first-ever female party head after a party commission investigating claims of election irregularities had determined that she won Friday's election over former presidential candidate Segolene Royal by 102 votes out of nearly 135,000 cast.

Originally Aubry had been credited with a winning margin of only 42 votes, or 0.04 per cent. The closeness of the contest and reports of irregularities in several voting districts, including in Lille, had moved Royal supporters to charge that the election had been stolen.

Baghdad  - Two Iraqi lawmakers made a final call on fellow MPs Tuesday to vote for the US security pact that would allow US forces to remain another three years - while Sunni opponents threatened to boycott the vote.

Deputy Vice Prime Minister Barham Saleh and Rafea al-Eissawi held a joint press conference and called other lawmakers to put differences behind them and seek what they said was good for Iraq.

New York  - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon ordered Tuesday an accelerated reconfiguration of the organization's mission in Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia earlier this year and is now recognized by more than 40 countries.

The UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has ceased to carry out most of its tasks after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, Ban said in a report to the UN Security Council, which planned to meet Wednesday to discuss the new development.