Wellington  - New Zealand's Foreign Minister Murray McCully rejected on Wednesday accusations that the country's top diplomat in Fiji, who has been expelled by the island state's military ruler, had broken the rules of diplomatic behaviour.

Fiji told New Zealand's Acting High Commissioner Caroline McDonald on Tuesday to leave the capital Suva in a week, saying she had ignored the military government, which seized power two years ago, and associated only with opposition politicians.

Cairo - Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa on Tuesday renewed his call for an Arab-Iranian dialogue, describing it as "extremely important".

Mussa said Arabs and Iranians should sit together to try to resolve their regional disputes. He said he was amazed that a dialogue between the West and Iran existed, while there was no such dialogue between the Arab states and Iran.

Bucharest - Romania's new Prime Minister Emil Boc, on the first day of his term Tuesday, announced the salaries of senior government officials would be reduced to a little less than one fifth.

In the current time of crisis, officials had to be the first to tighten their belts, Boc said.

The heads of administrations such as customs, aviation and state- owned enterprises such as power plants were among those affected. They would no longer earn up to
28,000 lei (10,040 dollars) per month, but up to a maximum of 4,800 lei.

Washington - When president-elect Barack Obama takes the oath of office on January 20, he will use the same Bible that Abraham Lincoln used for his swearing-in ceremony.

Obama will be the first president to be sworn in using the Lincoln Bible since 1861, the Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) said Tuesday.

While there is no constitutional requirement for a Bible to be used at the swearing-in, presidents have traditionally done so, choosing a volume with personal or historical significance.

Baghdad - The Iraqi parliament approved on Tuesday a resolution that will allow non-US foreign troops to stay in Iraq, as speaker of parliament resigned during a closed-door emergency session with lawmakers.

The resolution will allow non-US forces to remain in the country beyond December 31, when a United Nations mandate permitting the presence of foreign troops in the country expires.

Budapest - The head of Transparency International Hungary was one of four to resign from the Hungarian government's Anti-Corruption Coordination Board because they felt their work was wasted, the corruption watchdog confirmed on Tuesday.

Transparency International Hungary said in a statement sent to the state-owned news agency MTI that the work of the advisory board, set up by the government in the summer of 2007, had become "irrelevant."