The emir of Qatar criticized Syria for using force against protesters demanding democratic change, describing the approach as fruitless and urging serious reforms, QNA state news agency said Friday.

"All of us, who stood by Syria in its difficult times, have tried to encourage our brothers in Syria to make real reforms," said Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who was on a visit to Iran.

China has said it will vote in favor of Palestinian statehood when the matter is presented to the U.N. Security Council next month, the official Palestinian news agency said on Friday.

A message to that effect from Chinese President Hu Jintao was delivered to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Thursday, WAFA said.

Syrian police are hunting for the attackers who broke the hand of the country's leading political cartoonist, the official SANA news agency said Friday, after Washington condemned the attack.

"The competent authorities at the Interior Ministry are seeking the culprits in order to bring them to justice," the agency said.

Tens of thousands of people marched in Tehran on Friday at the "Quds Day" rally, an annual regime-sanctioned demonstration in solidarity with Palestinians and against Israel, according to footage aired on state television.

The television showed large crowds in major cities, carrying banners of "Death to Israel" and "Death to America."

Beneath the grassy courtyard of Moammar Gadhafi's private compound, long tunnels connect bunkers, command centers and spiral staircases that lead to a luxurious home filled with Gadhafi family photos.

The electric lights are out and the banks of telephones have gone dead.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday pledged support for a "new Libya," urging triumphant rebels to turn the page on Moammar Gadhafi's rule and build a secure, democratic state.

She also called on the rebels to guard weapons stockpiles and take a hard line against "extremism," as the United Nations began releasing $1.5 billion in Libyan assets earmarked for U.N. programs, food and basic services.

Embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is either in southern Tripoli or has already fled to the desert, his defected former prime minister Abdessalam Jalloud said Thursday.

"He has only four people left around him. There are two possibilities: either he is hiding in the southern part of Tripoli or he left some time ago," Jalloud, who fled Tripoli and has been in Italy since Saturday, told a press conference.

Russia stressed on Thursday it was important that the U.N. Security Council play a "leading role" in post-Gadhafi Libya as the six-month rebellion against its old ally appeared to be drawing to an end.

The Russian foreign ministry said Russia's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon had earlier in the day discussed global assistance to Libya's transition following the ouster of Moammar Gadhafi.

A U.N. humanitarian team ended Thursday an inspection mission to Syria even though security forces are still using "excessive and lethal force" against demonstrators, officials said.

The team, which President Bashar al-Assad let into Syria last weekend after months of U.N. pressure, went to Damascus, Homs, Banias, Latakia, Hama, Aleppo and Idlib, said U.N. under secretary general B. Lynn Pascoe.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi called in an audio message on Thursday for an armed struggle to defeat the "enemies" and to "liberate Tripoli."

In the message, broadcast on Syria-based Arrai Oruba television, he said, "We must resist these enemy rats, who will be defeated thanks to the armed struggle."