The highest-ranking American diplomat to visit Burma in 14 years offered improved relations if the country's military regime moves toward democracy.

Pakistani forces killed up to 30 militants close to the Afghan border today as the region’s chief minister told a top US diplomat he wanted to resolve problems there through dialogue.

Troops backed by helicopter gunships and artillery pounded militant positions in north-west Pakistan, killing 60 fighters and wounding many others, the military said today.

Israel and Syria yesterday said they were holding indirect peace talks through Turkish mediators — the first official confirmation of contacts.

EGYPT was trying to persuade Hamas yesterday to accept a truce that would halt rocket attacks on Israel in an effort to put an end to Gaza violence and salvage Middle East peace talks.

The top US envoy on North Korea made a rare visit to the communist country today to inspect work to disable its nuclear complex so that Pyongyang will no longer be able to produce atomic bombs.

The US is working with North Korea to remove it from Washington’s blacklist of states sponsoring terrorism as American experts prepare to start disabling the Communist nation’s nuclear reactor, a top US diplomat said today.

The US State Department today said that the next round of six-nation North Korean nuclear talks could start on September 27.

Arms talks with North Korea failed to yield an agreement on a deadline for disabling its nuclear facilities, the US said today, dashing hopes for another disarmament breakthrough after the shutdown of Pyongyang’s sole reactor.

The main US nuclear envoy said in South Korea today that Washington believes a financial dispute that has prevented North Korea’s disarmament is now resolved.

The continuing genocide in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region was the world’s worst human rights abuse last year, the US said today in a global report that found freedoms eroding in numerous other nations, including US allies Afghanistan and Iraq.

African Union nations have committed about 4,000 troops for a Somalia peacekeeping force, and the first deployments could come as early as next week, a US State Department official said today.

The first talks on North Korea's nuclear programme since the communist nation tested an atomic device ended without an agreement on disarmament or a date for further negotiations.

THE United States and North Korea held their first face-to-face meeting yesterday at the six-nation nuclear arms talks, and also met separately to discuss US financial restrictions on the communist regime that have been a key snag to the arms negotiations.

Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan are today resuming talks to end a conflict that has in the past five decades often defined – and destabilised – South Asia.

US officials have found traces of radioactive air which may confirm that North Korea did carry out a nuclear test as it claimed on Monday.

The United States and South Korea detected a seismic event at a suspected nuclear test site in North Korea, the White House said today after North Korea claimed it had conducted an underground nuclear test.

THE prolonged disappearance of Fidel Castro from public view indicates that the Cuban president is confronting “serious” health problems, a senior US State Department official said yesterday.

The prolonged disappearance of Fidel Castro from public view indicates that the Cuban president is confronting “serious” health problems, a senior us State Department official said today.

A TOP US envoy arrived in Tokyo yesterday to rally a united international front against North Korea’s recent missile tests, but cracks were already appearing over a Japanese proposal for sanctions.

The chief US negotiator on North Korea met top Chinese officials today to discuss Pyongyang’s missile tests, amid stepped up efforts by the world powers to curb North’s provocative behaviour.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency today said it is adding 100,000 Gaza residents, mostly government employees and their families, to its food distribution programme to meet an increasingly desperate situation there.

With formal peacemaking a dim prospect at this volatile time, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert intends to sound out US President George Bush today about Olmert’s ambitious plan to impose a West Bank settlement on the Palestinians.

Communist rebels withdrew a blockade of Nepal’s highways today but gave the country’s political parties a two-day deadline to begin the process of rewriting the constitution, their leader said.

Newly-installed Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar said the United States is biased toward Israel, guilty of crimes against the Muslim and Arab world and is widening the rift between the American people and those of the Middle East.

Spain asked the United States in March and again this week if CIA planes carrying terror suspects made stopovers at Spanish airports, and both times the Americans said they had no record of such flights, the government said.

The chief US envoy to talks on ending North Korea’s atomic weapons programme met today with his North Korean counterpart seeking to break a stalemate, and said afterward that the negotiations are still “in business".

North Korea’s envoy to international disarmament talks said today that his country was ready to work on eliminating atomic weapons from the Korean Peninsula, while the US reassured the communist nation that it had no intention of invading to end the nuclear stand-off.

MORE than 200,000 Lebanese people took to the streets of Beirut yesterday in a demonstration of mourning for their former premier and an expression of hatred for Syria, whom they accuse of being behind his assassination.

An armed group linked to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ ruling Fatah party today announced it would be willing to accept a ceasefire if Israel also agrees to stop its attacks.

Thousands of armed Palestinian police took up positions in the northern Gaza Strip to prevent attacks on Israel, and Islamic militants said they were suspending rocket fire – major steps toward a possible truce after more than four years of bloody Mideast conflict.

The United States resumed direct diplomatic ties with Libya today after a 24-year break.

North Korea and the United States will hold direct talks today on the sidelines of a six-country meeting about the North’s nuclear programme, the Chinese government said.

A US State Department envoy said today that a fresh round of talks on North Korea’s nuclear stand-off could open as early as this month.

The families of the 270 people killed in the Lockerbie bombing 15 years ago are likely to receive only half the £6m (€8.5m) Libya has agreed to pay each of them.

DOZENS of civilians have been killed in fighting between rebels and President Charles Taylor's forces for control of Liberia's second city of Buchanan, residents said yesterday.

ISRAEL yesterday pledged a "war to the bitter end" against Hamas but an opinion poll showed a majority of Israelis oppose the stepped-up attacks on leaders of the militant Islamic group.

Washington has urged the United Nations to follow its example and lift economic sanctions against Baghdad.

A SENIOR US official, launching talks on a peace "road map", yesterday said Israel should ease a harsh military clampdown on Palestinians to encourage them to reject violence.

NUCLEAR talks in Beijing ended yesterday after US officials said North Korea claimed to have nuclear weapons and might test, export or use them.

NORTH Korea accused the United States of leading the region toward war yesterday in an apparent attempt by the communist nation to increase pressure on negotiators holding a second day of talks on its nuclear programs.

Fifty years after Washington forged an armistice with North Korea and China to end the Korean War, the three states were today trying to resolve a new regional crisis amid US claims the North wants to build nuclear arms.

THE Bush administration says it will seek a diplomatic solution to the stand-off over North Korea’s suspected nuclear weapons programmes. But the communist nation’s leaders routinely accuse Washington of plotting their downfall.

THE US air force was yesterday preparing to resume spy flights off the coast of North Korea, while a Japanese report said the North may soon test-fire a missile that could reach nearly all of Japan.