Colombo, July 31: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee arrived here last night to participate in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Council of Ministers meeting.

Sri Lanka's Deputy Foreign Minister MK Hussain Bahila and Indian High Commissioner Alok Prasad received Mukherjee at the Colombo airport.

New York  - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday that the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will not endanger peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.

Visiting the United Nations, Barak said that Olmert, who has been ensnared by a corruption scandal, made the right decision by not seeking re-election as Kadima party leader, meaning he will leave office in September.

New York  - Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak called Wednesday for tough UN sanctions to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Barak met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at United Nations headquarters in New York, saying that economic sanctions would hurt Iran's nuclear programmes. Iran has said that its uranium enrichment programme was intended for peaceful, civilian nuclear energy and not for weapons.

"We believe that no options should be removed in this regard from the table," Barak told reporters.

Phnom Penh  - Cambodia's ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) has ordered the leader of its coalition partner, the royalist Funcinpec Party, to stand down, but will retain the coalition structure, government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said Wednesday.

He said the CPP would form a coalition after Sunday's landslide victory, which sees the CPP take at least 90 of 123 seats - 64 more than it's nearest rival, the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP).

New York  - The UN Security Council voted unanimously Wednesday to terminate the mission of military observers at a disputed border between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The 15-nation council decided to entirely withdraw the mission, which since last year had begun relocating their personnel out of a temporary security zone after Eritrea increasingly limited the peacekeepers' movements with measures such as cutting off petroleum for their transportation.

Valletta  - A long-standing issue between Libya and Malta over oil exploration in disputed waters could be decided by the autumn following talks in Tripoli Wednesday.

Libyan leader Moamar Gaddafi held a meeting with Maltese President Eddie Fenech Adami to try to strike a long-awaited deal.

After the meeting, Maltese officials told reporters in Tripoli that there was a "commitment" for political decisions to be taken on this issue and that a joint commission is due to meet in October.