Tel Aviv  - Eight Israeli soldiers were injured late Friday in a mortar attack from the Gaza Strip on an army base in southern Israel, ynet online news agency reported.

The report said six mortars were fired on the base in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, two of which hit the base. The other four landed in fields near the base.

The Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility, but the radical Hamas movement said its al-Qassam Brigades military wing carried out the attack in retaliation for a clash with Israeli forces in Gaza that injured four of its militants.

The Israeli forces said a patrol had discovered Palestinian militants planting bombs at the border post earlier Friday near Khan Younis.

Cairo  - Arab foreign ministers met in Cairo on Wednesday to find out ways to support the Palestinian talks after Islamist group Hamas refused to attend the Cairo-brokered reconciliation talks.

In his opening speech, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal warned that Israel was the sole beneficiary of the rivalry between Palestinians, which spared Israel the trouble of moving forward in the peace process.

"If we don't want to accuse anyone of hindering the peace process, then at least we are required to remind all parties involved of one fact: That we must not forget that the sole beneficiary of the rivalry between Palestinians is Israel," Faisal said.

Manama, Bahrain  - The speaker of the Syrian People Assembly, Mahmoud al-Abrash, said on Tuesday that allegations of a secret military nuclear programme by his country were fabricated.

"There are attempts to accuse Syria of having a military nuclear programme despite all the assurances and the reality on the ground that prove that Syria has no nuclear programme," al-Abrash told repoters in Manama at the end of an official two-day visit to Bahrain.

"We don't have a nuclear program but we have a plan that aims to rid the region of mass destruction weapons and we are honestly pointing out the fact that Israel is the country with the largest arsenal of mass destruction weapons in the region."

New York  - The continued fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants has become the "biggest challenge" to the political talks aimed at resolving the conflict, the United Nations said Tuesday.

"Recent developments in the occupied Palestinian territories and in Israel underscores that the gap between the political tracks and the situation on the ground remain large, posing considerable obstacles in the path that lies ahead," UN Undersecretary General for Political Affairs B Lynn Pascoe said.

Washington  - US President George W Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met in Washington on Monday pledging to move forward on the peace process as both prepare to leave office.

"I believe that vision is alive and needs to be worked on," Bush said of the peace negotiations that were relaunched in November 2007 during an international conference he hosted in Annapolis, Maryland.

New York  - The Palestinian people's rights to self- determination and statehood should be supported after 60 years of deprivation, United Nations officials said Monday.

While the UN advocates for Palestinians' rights, it also defends Israeli's rights to live in security within their borders.

The UN on Monday marked the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, an occasion to reiterate calls for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Negotiators at last year's meetings in Annapolis, under the sponsorship of the White House, had hoped for a peace agreement by the end of December.