Tehran  - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that Iran would not suspend its controversial nuclear enrichment programme for the sake of improving ties with the United States.

"We have already gone beyond the discussion of suspension (of uranium enrichment) and will decisively continue our (nuclear) path," Ahmadinejad said in an interview with state television network IRIB.

New York  - The UN Security Council on Tuesday welcomed an agreement between the Sudanese government and a rebel group to settle the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region.

The council debated the signing in Doha of an agreement of "good intentions" between Khartoum and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the main opposition group in Darfur fighting Arab militias backed by the Sudanese government.

Geneva  - Delegates from eight parties started the newest round of talks Tuesday on last year's conflict between Russia and Georgia, though negotiations have so far yielded little results.

The talks at the United Nations' Geneva office will focus on humanitarian and security issues, including a mechanism to prevent and resolve future armed incidents near or within the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

While the parties have agreed to the mechanism in principle, they were still debating the details of how it would function.

Washington  - The centrepiece of Barack Obama's economic rescue plans will become law Tuesday, the culmination of a six-week process full of partisan wrangling that handed the US president his first significant victory since inauguration.

Obama is to sign a 787-billion-dollar economic stimulus bill at a ceremony in Denver, Colorado. The largest single spending measure in US history is intended to help the country recover from a year-long recession that many consider the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Prague  - Czech parliament's lower house is set to resume debating the European Union's stalled reform pact, the Lisbon Treaty, at 6 pm (1700 GMT) on Tuesday and possibly vote on the pact, local reports said, citing lawmakers.

The Czech Republic is the last member state yet to vote on the accord, which passed parliaments in 25 countries but was rejected by Irish voters in a June 2008 referendum.

If adopted, the treaty would overhaul EU institutions with the aim to streamline decision-making in the enlarged 27-member bloc.

Amman - Jordan and Canada on Tuesday signed an agreement for cooperation in the sphere of peaceful uses of the nuclear energy, president of the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) Khalid Toukan said.

The accord concluded between the JAEC and the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) is a follow-up for the memorandum of standing that was signed between the two sides in June, he added.

"Under the agreement, the AECL will extend all possible assistance to Jordan in the areas of building nuclear reactors for peaceful uses such as electricity generation and water desalination as well as nuclear security, planning of nuclear radiation and protection of environment," Toukan said.