Amman - The Euro-Med Ministerial Conference on Water has been called off indefinitely due to differences over the participation of the Arab League, Jordanian Foreign Minister Salah Bashir said Sunday.

The conference had been slated for Tuesday in Jordan's Red Sea resort. Bashir was quoted by the official Petra news agency as saying the gathering was postponed "to allow room for reaching agreement on some issues, foremost the participation of the Arab League and its membership in the Union for the Mediterranean."

"Jordan rejects taking prior or individual attitudes that could influence the discussions due to take place in the coming meetings," he added.

Soelden, Austria - Daniel Albrecht won the men's alpine skiing season-opener on Sunday when he dominated a giant slalom ahead of fellow-Swiss Didier Cuche.

Albrecht clocked a combined total of 2 minutes 15.78 seconds from two runs on the glacier course to claimed his second career win.

Cuche had 2:15.92 and Ted Ligety of the US placed third, far off the pace in 2:17.03 minutes.

Munich - Plans for a costly mass in Rome to celebrate the birthday of Pope Benedict's elder brother have been criticized by a Catholic lay group in Germany, the weekly news magazine Focus reported Sunday.

Georg Ratzinger, a retired priest and former director of music at Regensburg Cathedral in Germany, is to celebrate his 85th birthday on January 15.

The Catholic Diocese of Regensburg plans to spend 100,000 dollars flying 90 boy choristers and 37 musicians to Rome to perform a Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart mass in the Sixtine Chapel in the Vatican especially for him.

Monsignor Ratzinger lives in the city of Regensburg and used to conduct the boys' choir.

Tehran - The Iranian parliament motion Sunday demanded that Interior Minister Ali Kordan be impeached for having presented it with a faked honorary doctorate from Oxford University, ISNA news agency reported.

Parliament will debate on November 4 whether the impeachment would be accepted or not, ISNA said.

In a letter to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last month, Kordan admitted that the certificate from the prestigious British university which he presented to parliament was a fake.

But he also claimed that he was victim of a swindle by a man who allegedly posed as a representative in Tehran of the university.

Presentation of false documents, especially in government service, is a crime punishable by a imprisonment in Iran.

Jerusalem - Israel Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni postponed by several hours a scheduled meeting with President Shimon Peres Sunday in which she was expected to recommend new elections as she had failed to form a new governing coalition.

Livni had been slated to meet Peres at 2 pm (1200 GMT) but at the last minute received a phone call from Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik, who was meeting the president and who asked her to delay her visit to Peres' official residence, Israel Radio reported.

It was unclear whether Peres or Itzik were attempting to intervene and conduct last-minute mediation between Livni and prospective coalition partners who had already refused to join a government headed by her.