Washington  - The United States will make emergency relief funds available to Italy as the death toll rose from an early morning earthquake in central Italy, a US official said Monday.

The amount of 50,000 dollars would be processed through the US embassy in Rome to help after the quake killed more than 150 people in the ancient town of L'Aquila and surrounding mountainous areas about 100 kilometres north-east of Rome.

Washington  - The United States warned Monday of "difficult diplomacy" in finding agreement on a strong, effective international reaction to North Korea's defiant launching of a missile over the weekend.

"The issue's a bit complicated, as you know, and it's going to take time," Robert Wood, deputy spokesperson for the US State Department, told reporters. "It's not something, I would suspect, that we could resolve in the next day or so. It's going to take time."

Tel Aviv  - Israel will seal off the West Bank from midnight Monday (2200 GMT) for the duration of the seven-day Passover festival, which begins Wednesday at sunset, the Israeli military said in a statement.

The closure will remain in effect until Saturday April 18, according to "security assessments," the statement said.

Baghdad - British Foreign Secretary David Miliband arrived in Basra on Monday leading a delegation of British investors and businessmen to explore investment opportunities in Iraq, the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency reported.

VOI cited Basra media spokesperson Aqeel al-Fereji as saying Miliband was expected to attend the Basra investment conference along with the delegation. Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki had met earlier Monday with British Business Secretary Peter Mandelson.

Nairobi/Lisbon/Bissau  - The African Union on Monday appointed former Angolan Foreign Minister Joao Bernardo de Miranda as special envoy to Guinea-Bissau, which was plunged into crisis by the assassination of its president in early March.

President Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira was shot dead in the capital Bissau on March 2, by soldiers who blamed him for killing of army chief Batista Tagme Na Wai only hours before.

Interim President Raimundo Pereira is to remain in charge until the summer, when elections are to be organized.

Moscow  - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday called for a two-state solution in the Middle East following talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Moscow.

"We continue to support the establishment of a separate Palestinian state," Medvedev said, according to Russia's Itar-Tass news agency.

The Kremlin chief again announced plans for a Middle East conference in Moscow, for which a date has yet to be set, saying the conference could mark "the next step towards a solution to the conflict."