Washington - Veteran Alaskan Republican Senator Ted Stevens narrowly lost his bid for re-election, increasing the Democrats' majority in the US upper house, US media reported late Tuesday.

Stevens, 85, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, will be replaced by the mayor of Anchorage, Democrat Mark Begich, 46.

As Alaska's division of elections counted the last absentee ballots from the November 4 election, Begich was ahead by 3,724 votes, an insurmountable lead with only a few thousand absentee ballots left to be counted, reported Alaska's KIMO TV news.

Los Angeles - US president-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday pledged urgent action to implement the climate and clean-energy policies he laid out in his campaign, telling a meeting of state governors that "delay is no longer an option."

Obama pledged to spend 15 billion dollars a year to help US industry develop clean energy technology and to institute a cap-and- trade system to reduce carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.

Washington  - Barack Obama spoke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday as the president-elect continues to return phone calls from leaders congratulating him on winning the White House.

The Obama transition team did not disclose details of Obama's conversation with Abbas.

Obama has vowed that he will continue to work for Israeli- Palestinian peace. He telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert two days after the November 4 election.

Washington  - US president-elect Barack Obama has selected lawyer Eric Holder to become the top law enforcement officer in his administration, US media reported Tuesday.

Holder has accepted the offer to serve as attorney general and his final approval is pending a vetting process by the Obama transition team, CNN and Newsweek magazine reported.

Holder served as deputy attorney general in former president Bill Clinton's administration, the second highest position in the Justice Department.

Paris  - Zimbabwe's embattled prime-minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai Tuesday charged that entrenched Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe had denied him a passport, forcing him to travel on special documents through Europe.

"It is really ridiculous that the prime minister of a country has no passport," Tsvangirai said in Paris. "I hope that this changes soon."

Managua  - Supporters of the Sandinista Front that leads Nicaragua took to the streets of the capital Managua on Tuesday to "defend the vote" from the recent municipal election.

They gathered in front of the headquarters of the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) three hours before the start of a "rally against fraud" that had been called by the right-wing candidate to the position of mayor of Managua, Eduardo Montealegre.