Washington - The United States vowed Wednesday to continue working for Middle East peace regardless of who emerges as the winner in Israel's elections.

"We've been working over the years with governments in Israel on trying to bring about - trying to affect the peace process. And that's still going to be our goal," State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood said.

Elections in Israel on Tuesday failed to produce a clear winner. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of the Kadima party and Likud's Benjamin Netanyahu both declared victory with

New York  - Zimbabwe's new Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai should address immediately the economic and humanitarian crises in the country, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday in welcoming the new government leader.

Tsvangirai was sworn in as a political partner in the government of President Robert Mugabe, a deal that fulfilled an agreement reached last September between Mugabe and the opposition party headed by Tsvangirai.

Cairo - Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa on Wednesday urged the new Israeli government to take steps towards peace.

Mussa, however, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, he held little hope that either Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni or opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu would change Israel's policy toward the rest of the region.

"Regarding Kadima's victory, if Israel's new government proceeds in its current ways, we won't find any progress in Israel's policies," Mussa said.

Brussels/Vienna  - The European Commission on Wednesday launched a probe into claims that Germany's Lufthansa may not be paying enough for Austrian Airlines in its bid to create Europe's largest carrier.

In a statement, the European Union executive in Brussels expressed "doubts that the price to be paid by Lufthansa reflects the market price for what is being sold."

Kiev  - Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko on Wednesday answered questions from a Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa reporter in an exclusive interview. Following are Q&A excerpts:

Q: Will there be a default in Ukraine?

A: The real question is, how strong will our budgetary policy be? How realistic will it be? How ambitious will it be? And critically, will the budget be balanced? How much will we be able to make a strong, measured policy? That will determine whether or not we can service our obligations.

Harare  - Two leading human rights lawyers, one of them closely involved in defending illegally detained pro-democracy activists, were arrested Tuesday on the eve of the swearing-in of a new power-sharing interim government in Zimbabwe, lawyers said.

Rose Hanzi, who has been representing 28 activists of Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change arrested in October, and Tawanda Zhuwarara, both of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, were seized outside Zimbabwe's parliament building at lunchtime, said ZLHR head Irene Petras.