French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe on Thursday urged a "really equal partnership" between Tunisia and its former ruler and voiced support for the new Tunis government's efforts to buttress democracy.

Juppe, who arrived on his second visit to the North African country in less than a year, was met by his counterpart Rafik Abdessalem, with whom he had his first meeting, the official news agency TAP reported.

Iraq-based jihadist group Ansar al-Islam has named a new chief, the SITE Intelligence Group on Thursday quoted a statement posted on Islamist Internet forums as saying.

The statement said Abu Hashim Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman al-Ibrahim has been chosen to lead the group, but it did not mention its previous leader, Abu Abdullah Al Shafil.

Two leading Syrian opposition groups voiced their desire Thursday to resolve a rift and unite against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, Belgium's foreign minister said after talks with the two.

Saying divisions were "playing in the hands of the Syrian regime," Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders called for a "unified opposition platform," his office said in a statement.

Yemeni troops backed by warplanes clashed Thursday with suspected Al- Qaida militants in the restive south in fighting that killed 10 people, military and civilian administration sources said.

Four soldiers were killed and 10 wounded in the fighting on the eastern and northern outskirts of the city of Zinjibar, controlled by Al- Qaida -linked Partisans of Sharia militants, a military source said.

Israeli troops on Thursday demolished four villas near the ancient city of Jericho, which Israel said endangered a nearby archaeological site, sources on both sides said.

An AFP correspondent at the scene said the villas, which are located in Ad-Duyuk at-Tahta northwest of the town, were owned by Palestinians living in Jerusalem and Ramallah.

Gaza's Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya said support for Palestine should be a "religious and nationalist commitment" as he arrived in Tunis Thursday to a welcome from Tunisia's new leaders.

"Palestine is not a banner that we brandish like nobody's business, it's a religious and nationalist commitment," said Haniya after a meeting with Tunisia's moderate Islamist Prime Minister, Hamadi Jebali.

A prosecutor in Hosni Mubarak's trial on Thursday demanded the death sentence for him and his former security chief, saying the fallen Egyptian president had ordered the killings of anti-regime demonstrators.

"The law foresees the death penalty for premeditated murder," prosecutor Mustafa Khater told the court during the trial of the former president, who was toppled in a popular uprising in February.

The head of the Free Syrian Army demanded Thursday that the Arab League pull its observer mission out of the country over its failure to halt almost 10 months of bloodshed.

Colonel Riyadh al-Asaad issued the call in an interview with AFP after the Arab League turned to the United Nations for help and admitted "mistakes" in the monitoring mission launched less than two weeks ago.

Iraq and Iran are aiding the Syrian regime financially in its crackdown on protests, a former official in President Bashar Assad's regime alleged Thursday in a report on al-Jazeera's website.

Mahmoud Suleiman Haj Hamad made the allegations at a press conference in Cairo after announcing his defection from the regime, according to the satellite network's Arabic-language website.

The Israeli military has banned 12 Jewish extremists from the West Bank for three to nine months because they are suspected in violence against Palestinians and Israeli soldiers.

The military had no comment when asked why the radicals were not arrested. The extremists were not identified in the military's statement Thursday.