Warsaw - General Henry Obering said the United States wants an anti-missile base in Poland by 2012, and would ratify the deal even this year, Polish local media reported on Wednesday.

Obering, who is director of the US Missile Defence Agency, was visiting northern Poland on Wednesday to tour the future site of the missile base and meet with local officials. He said the 400-million dollar investment would boost the region's economy.

Polish vice-minister of Defence Stanislaw Jerzy Komorowski said that Poland also wants a quick ratification of the deal, reported the Polish Press Agency, but had doubts it could be done by the end of 2008.

Lusaka - While tens of thousands of people are fleeing renewed fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, thousands of victims of the last war from 1998 to 
1993 are returning to their homes in the south of the country from neighbouring Zambia.

After nine years in refugee camps in Zambia, more and more Congolese refugees are packing for home, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Zambia said Wednesday.

The refugees are being repatriated by road to their homes in Katanga province, which is deemed safe, deputy representative for the UNHCR Zambia, Fernando Alvarado, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Kiev - A senior Ukrainian aviation official said Iran intends to purchase and later produce a licensed version of a Ukraine's Antonov 148 mid-range passenger jet, the Interfax news agency reported on Wendesday.

Dmitro Kiva, chairman of the Kiev-headquartered Antonov aerospace factory, said Iran "will fully participate" in the subsequent production of the aircraft.

The An-148 is a twin-engine high-wing passenger plane designed for operation at rough airfields. Ukraine developed the aircraft during the 1990s and certified the single flying prototype in February 2007.

Oslo - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili held talks Wednesday with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg that touched on Tbilisi's aim of joining NATO in future.

The two also discussed developing energy cooperation and Norwegian support for various reform programmes, Stoltenberg told a joint news conference.

Concerning Georgia's prospects of joining NATO, Stoltenberg said "the door is open," citing the decision taken by NATO leaders at a summit in Bucharest in April.

"What we are discussing is the timetable, the development and reforms that are needed in Georgia," Stoltenberg said, adding that NATO and Georgia were in "close dialogue."

Belgrade - A Serbian war crimes prosecutor said in an interview released Wednesday that Albania was hiding evidence of a mass murder committed to harvest victims' organs during the Kosovo war.

The unverified claims have stirred up bad memories and bad blood between the countries.

"Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha. ... ordered security services to destroy documents on Serbs who disappeared in Kosovo, their transport to Albania and the trafficking of their organs," the prosecutor, Vladimir Vukcevic, told the daily Press.

Islamabad - A powerful earthquake rattled Pakistan's south- western Balochistan province on Wednesday, killing more than 170 people, injuring hundreds more and leaving thousands homeless, officials said.

The US Geological Survey website said a magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck 60 kilometres north-east of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, at 5:10 am (2310 GMT). It lasted about 40 seconds.

With the earthquake hitting just before sunrise, people fled their houses in panic. Television footage showed terrified families wrapped in blankets sitting by the roadsides in Quetta.