Moscow - Venezuela President Hugo Chavez announced new arms purchases from Russia and and agreed an energy partnership with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday.

"We want peace, but we have to strengthen our defences," the president of the South American nation said at the start of a two-day visit to Moscow, the news agency Interfax reported.

Russian media reports said Chavez, who is known for his anti-US rhetoric, planned to negotiate the purchase of diesel-powered submarines, combat helicopters, tanks and Tor-M1 surface-to-air missiles.

Jerusalem  - Israel's President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met for talks Tuesday on strengthening the peace process and the situation in the region.

Abbas became the first Palestinian president ever to be allowed into the presidential residence - Beit Hanasi - in Jerusalem for a meeting described by the daily Yediot Ahronot as "historic."

Baghdad  - The Iraqi parliament Tuesday ratified a key provincial election bill despite a walkout by members of the Kurdish Alliance bloc, local media reported.

Parliament also decided to delay a contentious provincial election in the oil-rich northern province of Tamim and its ethnically mixed capital Kirkuk.

A walkout by lawmakers from the Kurdish Alliance with a fifth of parliament's 275 seats delayed voting on the bill, which governs provincial council polls slated to be held in Iraq this autumn.

Brussels  - Direct contacts with the Palestinian Islamic group Hamas would not take place until the group recognizes Israel's right to exist, Mideast Quartet representative and former British prime minister Tony Blair said on Tuesday in Brussels.

"It is important that it accepts the existence of Israel," said Blair on the sidelines of a EU foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels

Johannesburg - Talks between Zimbabwe's political parties on the formation of a powersharing government were due to get underway Tuesday in South Africa, a day after President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai inked an agreement to negotiate.

South African diplomatic sources confirmed to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the talks would begin Tuesday, but refused to divulge the venue or give other details.

On Monday, Mugabe, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, leader of a breakaway MDC faction, signed a memorandum of understanding setting out the agenda and the ground rules for the two weeks of talks on the formation of an "inclusive" government.

Washington - Iran probably can already hit most of Europe and even Britain with a ballistic missile, even though it has not demonstrated the capability, the Pentagon's missile defence chief said Monday.

"I personally believe, based on what I've seen, that right now Iran has the ability to reach most of Europe. Right now. And they just haven't demonstrated it yet," Lieutenant General Henry Obering said in an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Obering heads the Pentagon's Missile Defence Agency, which is building the missile shield that the Bush administration wants to deploy to Poland and the Czech Republic to counter the Iranian threat.