Forces from Libya's interim regime scored a strategic goal Saturday in their push to capture Sirte, seizing a highway that opens the way to a final assault on a key base of troops loyal to Moammar Gadhafi.

But with thousands of civilians still trapped in the ex-leader's hometown, NTC commanders said they were pacing their advance to evacuate some of those who had not fled and to avoid losses from friendly fire.

The United Nations's new special envoy to Iraq Martin Kobler, a former ambassador to Baghdad for Germany, flew in on Saturday to take up his post, the U.N. mission said.

Kobler, 58, is a former top official at the German foreign ministry experienced in helping countries in conflict and served as Germany's ambassador to Iraq.

The European Union's foreign policy chief on Saturday firmly condemned the murder of a Kurdish opposition leader in Syria, and reiterated concern over Damascus' repression of pro-democracy protests.

"The High Representative condemns in the strongest terms the murder" of 53-year-old Meshaal Tamo, assassinated on Friday by masked gunmen who stormed his house in northern Syria, a statement issued on behalf of Catherine Ashton said.

Around 90 members of Syria's opposition, led by the Syrian National Council, met Saturday in Stockholm to strategize their struggle against President Bashar Assad's regime.

"Around 90 people are taking part... members of the Syrian National Council (SNC), including its leader Burhan Ghalioun, are here as are representatives of other Syrian opposition groups," said Laila Naraghi of the Olof Palme International Center hosting the conference.

Production at Iraq's biggest oil field was partially halted on Saturday after two bombs damaged a pipeline transporting crude, the head of state-owned South Oil Co said.

The blasts occurred overnight in the Safwan bridge area southwest of the port city of Basra, and the Qarenat area west of there, near the Rumaila oil field and caused a fire, according to a police officer and an SOC official.

An Algerian woman who had been evicted from her flat in Oran died after setting herself and her three-year-old son on fire, police said Saturday.

"She died at Oran university hospital" on Thursday, a policeman who spoke on condition of anonymity said, adding that the 35-year-old woman's son survived but had serious burns.

Fifty thousand Syrians rallied against the regime of President Bashar Assad on Saturday during the funeral of Meshaal Tamo, a Kurdish opposition figure slain the previous day, activists said.

"The funeral of Kurdish leader Meshaal Tamo, who was assassinated yesterday in the city of Qamishli, turned into a mass rally with more than 50,000 demonstrators calling for fall of the regime," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Eleven opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime were arrested after invading the country's embassy in Vienna and demonstrating on the balcony, police said Saturday.

They said some 20 people broke into the embassy in central Vienna's Landstrasse overnight, while dozens of others cheered them on in the street.

Russia expects a delegation of Syrian opposition politicians to visit Tuesday, a senior foreign ministry official said on Saturday.

"We are ready to meet them at the foreign ministry. This could happen on October 11 if they manage to arrive in time," deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov told the ITAR-TASS news agency.

Some 500 Druze living on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on Friday held a rally of support for embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad, an AFP photographer said.

Waving Syrian flags and portraits of Assad, the demonstrators marched through Majdal Shams. "We love you, Bashar ... We are with the Syrian army," they chanted.