Gaza - Egypt opened its border with Gaza Strip on Saturday to allow the passage of Palestinians who want to perform minor pilgrimages to Mecca (Omra), stranded people and patients, Palestinian security sources said.

The Hamas-controlled interior ministry in Gaza said the Rafah border crossing would remain partially open until late Sunday. Palestinians stranded at the Egyptian side would also be able to cross to Gaza.

Except for occasional exceptions for humanitarian reasons, Egypt has kept the Rafah crossing closed since Hamas took over control of the Gaza Strip by force last year.

Baghdad - Iraqi police arrested eight suspects on Tuesday in search of accomplices of a female suicide bomber who killed 22 people, security sources said.

The bomber blew herself up Monday amidst a crowd near a police station in Balad Ruz in Diyala province, 57 kilometres north-east of Baghdad, the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency reported.

Eleven policemen were among the 22 fatalities. Thirty-three civilians were injured in the attack.

According to a report by the Monitor of Constitutional Freedom and Bill of Rights, a Baghdad-based group, women embittered by the loss of their husbands and children in acts of violence are potential suicide bombers.

Gaza City - At least 11 Palestinians were killed in another outbreak of violent internecine clashes in the Gaza Strip, the worst in more than a month, security officials said Tuesday.

The clashes took place in southern Gaza City's al-Sabra neighbourhood, between forces from the radical Islamic Hamas movement ruling the strip and a powerful local clan, the Dughmush.

At least one Hamas policeman and four members of the Dughmush family, including an infant, were among the dead, the security officials said.

A statement by the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry said the police forces killed three "wanted criminals" who refused to surrender during an attempt to arrest them.

Baghdad - Extremists in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul killed three members of the same family, the US military reported on Friday.

Jerusalem - Israel has conveyed its displeasure to Washington over reported remarks by US Consul General Jacob Walles that it had agreed to start negotiations with the Palestinians over Jerusalem, an Israeli newspaper reported Friday.

The Jerusalem Post quoted an Israeli government source as saying Walles's comments to the Palestinian daily al-Ayyam were "highly inappropriate," since there was a US-Palestinian-Israeli agreement not to go public with what was being discussed by the negotiators.

Tel Aviv - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he doubted that any peace agreement could be reached by the end of 2008, saying in remarks published Friday that none of the six core issues in the conflict with Israel have been resolved.

"We presented our ideas and demands regarding the six issues but have not received any answer from the Israeli side," Abbas told the Israeli Ha'aretz newspaper on the 15th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo interim peace accords by late Israeli and Palestinian leaders Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat.