Tunisian political parties met on Tuesday for crisis talks on the contents and calendar for adopting a new constitution, which were attended by the Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali and President Moncef Marzouki.

The meeting, called by Tunisia's main trade union, the UGTT, gathered more than 40 political groups in a bid to resolve the impasse over drafting the text by the National Constituent Assembly, but was boycotted by two key parties.

A senior U.S. official will hold talks in Ankara on Tuesday on a range of issues including the Syrian crisis amid heightened tensions between Ankara and Damascus, an embassy spokesman said.

"We continue to consult with our partners in the region including Turkey on a variety of issues related to Syria," U.S. embassy spokesman in Ankara T.J. Grubisha told AFP.

Egypt's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that it has asked Syria to clarify circumstances in which three Egyptians were killed in fighting in Aleppo and Homs.

The ministry said it sent an "urgent message" to Damascus demanding an explanation for the death of the men, after Syria said one of them headed an armed group in rural Aleppo.

Vandals daubed offensive graffiti on the grave of celebrated Israeli general and war veteran Moshe Dayan overnight, his family said on Tuesday.

Dayan, who served as defense minister during the 1967 Six Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippor, died of a heart attack exactly 31 years ago, on October 16, 1981, and was buried in a cemetery in Nahalal moshav near the northern city of Nazareth.

Egypt's state prosecutor has asked the general intelligence service and Interior Ministry to provide possible evidence in a probe of Islamists over clashes with liberals last week, state media said Tuesday.

The prosecutor was acting on 53 complaints, some against senior members of President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement, of orchestrating Friday's unrest in which dozens of people were injured, Al-Akhbar newspaper reported.

Syrian regime warplanes unleashed relentless pre-dawn air raids Tuesday on rebel positions around Maaret al-Numan, a strategic northern town captured by insurgents last week, a watchdog said.

The raids were the "most violent" since the rebels took full control of the town in the province of Idlib last Wednesday, Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.

Bahrain summoned Iran's charge d'affaires on Monday in protest at "interference" by Tehran in the internal affairs of the Gulf kingdom, the foreign ministry said.

Tehran's envoy Mahdi Islami was summoned "to address his country's interference in the kingdom's internal affairs through deliberately attributing false information to Bahraini officials," the ministry said.

The U.S. administration has won congressional approval to devote $8 million to helping Libya develop a commando force to fight extremist groups, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

The funds would be shifted from Pentagon operations in Pakistan to help Libya develop a force to counter increasingly powerful Islamist militants, like those who attacked the U.S. consulate last month killing four Americans.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday she takes the blame for any shortcomings in the handling of an attack last month on the U.S. mission in the Libyan city of Benghazi.

"I take responsibility," she said, according to the news networks CNN and Fox, which interviewed her during a visit to the Peruvian capital Lima.

Israel's parliament voted Tuesday to dissolve itself and hold early elections on January 22, a move championed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu whose coalition is leading in the opinion polls.

The dissolution of the Knesset was approved by 100 votes to none in a third reading after a lengthy session in the 120-seat chamber.