Popular uprisings that toppled veteran leaders in the Arab world have raised hopes among north African filmmakers that the winds of change will also blow across the burgeoning industry.

But there are fears too that the revolts which ousted Tunisia's Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak and now threaten to end Libyan leader Moammer Gadhafi's 41-year rule may lead to regimes which stifle artistic freedom.

Rebels said Tuesday they rejected a mediator's offer of talks with Moammar Gadhafi and demanded that he leaves the country, while the strongman's regime dismissed as "rubbish" any suggestion of an approach from the Libyan leader.

Although it was unclear whether the issue was raised of immunity for the man who has ruled Libya with an iron fist for four decades, the head of the rebels' provisional national council told Agence France Presse they would not pursue criminal charges if Gadhafi quits.

Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are holding consultations over the oil market in light of the Libyan turmoil, the Kuwaiti oil minister said on Tuesday.

"We are in consultation but have not yet decided which direction," we are heading, Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah al-Sabah told reporters when asked if OPEC was discussing whether to raise crude production.

Iran's former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a bitter opponent of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saw his influence fade Tuesday when he abandoned one of his last two key regime posts.

State television and news agencies said conservative ex-premier Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani, 80, was elected as new head of the Assembly of Experts, the 86-member body which selects the supreme leader, supervises his activities and can dismiss him.

A massive bomb blast by suspected Islamic militants at a gas station in Pakistan's central Punjab province Tuesday killed at least 20 people and wounded 127 others, senior officials said.

"Now the death toll is 20. We have 127 wounded," city administration official Naseem Sadiq told Agence France Presse by telephone.

Britain will upgrade the status of the Palestinian delegation to London to the level of a mission in line with a number of other EU countries, Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Monday.

"Given the extent of our aid to the Palestinian Authority and our work with them, we will join many other countries in upgrading the status of the Palestinian delegation to London to the level of a mission," he told parliament.

Gulf Arab states announced their support for imposing a no-fly zone over Libya in a statement on Monday, amid divisions among the major powers over military intervention in the North African nation.

"The Gulf Cooperation Council demands that the U.N. Security Council take all necessary measures to protect civilians, including enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya," the six-nation bloc's statement said.

Iran and Syria found themselves in the spotlight Monday as the U.N. nuclear watchdog convened for its traditional week-long spring meeting.

The International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-member board of governors was set to discuss two new reports showing little or no progress in the watchdog's long-running investigations into Iran's controversial atomic program and allegations of illicit nuclear activity on the part of Syria.

Jacques Chirac on Monday became the first former French president to go on trial as a court heard charges that he embezzled public funds while he was mayor of Paris in the 1990s.

The 78-year-old, one of France's most popular political figures, did not attend the start of the trial that will examine whether he misused public money to pay people working for his party ahead of a successful election bid.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague confirmed Monday that Britain was working to draft a U.N. resolution on a no-fly zone over Libya to counter Moammar Gadhafi's offensive against rebels, but said it must have regional support and a "clear legal basis".

"At the U.N. Security Council we are working closely with partners on a contingency basis on elements of a resolution on a no-fly zone, making clear the need for regional support, a clear trigger for such a resolution and an appropriate legal basis," Hague told lawmakers in the House of Commons.