U.N. human rights experts may train Arab League observers monitoring the Syrian government's deadly crackdown on opposition protests, a U.N. spokesman said Thursday.

The announcement came the day after Qatar's prime minister sought help from U.N. secretary general Ban Ki-moon, saying the Arab League mission in Syria had made "some mistakes".

Attacks against Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad on Friday killed two people, a day after Iraq suffered its worst violence in five months as it grappled with a political row that has stoked sectarian tensions.

The two bombs exploded in the morning on separate bridges in the Dura neighborhood of south Baghdad, an interior ministry official and a doctor at Yarmuk hospital said.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden called Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss regional security, including Iraq's political crisis, the White House said Thursday.

The call followed up on Biden's visit to Turkey in December, and included an undertaking to work to support the rule of law and encourage democracy in the region, the White House said in a statement.

Israeli security authorities have arrested two Arab Israelis for allegedly abetting Palestinian militant movement Hamas, police told Agence France Presse on Thursday.

Spokeswoman Luba Samri said, following the lifting of a court-imposed gag order, that police and the Shin Bet internal security service last month arrested brothers Mohammed and Amir Asaad, from the village of Kfar Kana, near Nazareth.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators held a "positive" first face-to-face meeting in more than 15 months and agreed to meet again on Friday, but cautioned that full-blown talks were still some way off.

"The talks and atmosphere were positive," Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh told reporters after Tuesday's talks in Amman between Israel's chief negotiator Yitzhak Molcho, his Palestinian counterpart Saeb Erakat and Palestinian negotiator Mohammed Shtayyeh.

A jobless man set himself afire Thursday in front of the main government office of the poor Tunisian province of Gafsa as three ministers visited the unemployment-hit area, local sources said.

The man was taken to hospital with severe burns and in a critical state, unionist Amar Amroussia said.

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.