Cairo - Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Seniora denied on Thursday any Egyptian mediation to resume negotiations between Lebanon and Israel on the lines of Turkey's role in Syrian-Israeli talks.

Seniora, who was speaking at a joint press conference with Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa in Cairo, said that "no such thing is taking place."

Istanbul - Isolating Iran and Syria is a misguided strategy, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Thursday during an opening speech at the World Economic Forum in Istanbul.

"Dialogue between countries in the region is better than pressure from outside," he said.

Though his speech did not name the United States specifically, his comments were considered to be aimed directly as US policy.

Washington - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heads to the Middle East next week for discussions on the peace process with Israeli and Palestinian officials, the State Department said Thursday.

Rice will travel to the region on Wednesday, one day after the US presidential election, for meetings in Israel, the West Bank, Jordan and Egypt during the five-day trip, spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Tel Aviv - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak ordered the crossing points into the Gaza Strip to be shut Thursday, after militants in the salient fired a Qassam rocket at southern Israel.

The rocket, fired from the north of the strip toward the nearby Israeli town of Sderot, caused neither damage nor injuries, an Israeli military spokesman said.

Militants had also fired a rocket on Thursday, causing Barak to take a similar decision regarding the crossing points.

Damascus - Talks to reconcile differences between feuding Palestinian factions could fall apart if Egyptian mediators refuse to consider input from the factions, a source close to the negotiations said Wednesday.

"Egypt told the Palestinian factions that it would not consider the comments and amendments made by the factions on the draft submitted by Cairo," said Khaled Abdel Meguid, secretary of the follow-up committee of a national meeting of Palestinians.

Ramallah - Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 68-year-old Palestinian Wednesday morning in the village of Yamoun, west of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, according to the official Voice of Pa