Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's policies risk creating genocide in the conflict-torn country unless there is swift action to stop him, Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi said on Wednesday.

The Palestinians urged foreign governments on Wednesday to implement the recommendations of an Amnesty International report criticizing Israeli prison conditions and practices.

"The Palestinian government calls on the international community to take action to end -- and not merely condemn -- the torture, detention without trial and other abuses highlighted," the Palestinian government said in a statement.

Clashes between Al-Qaeda and the army killed 17 militants and two soldiers on Wednesday in southern Yemen, where the military has been fighting to reclaim territory lost last year, military officials said.

An army commander and a soldier were killed in a dawn attack by Al-Qaeda on positions of the 119th Brigade at Al-Kud, south of Zinjibar, which is under the control of the jihadists, one army officer said.

Bahrain re-arrested leading Shiite rights activist Nabil Rajab on Wednesday pending a probe into tweets deemed insulting to Sunnis, prosecutors said, nine days after he had been freed.

Rajab was "taken into custody pending investigation after he was accused of public insults against plaintiffs" from the predominantly Sunni province of Muharaq, it said in a statement.

France on Wednesday denounced President Bashar al-Assad's appointment of a new prime minister as a "masquerade" that does not meet the demands of the Syrian people or the international community.

"Bashar al-Assad remains stubbornly deaf to the demands of his people" and the move "does not meet the expectations of the Syrian people or the international community," foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Wednesday to expand the Beit El settlement by 300 homes after MPs voted down a bill to prevent the razing of buildings in one of its neighborhoods.

Netanyahu had opposed the bill, which would have circumvented a Supreme Court ruling ordering the dismantling of five buildings in the Ulpana neighborhood -- a settlement outpost built on private Palestinian land -- by legalizing outposts.

The United States endorsed Wednesday the Arab League's proposal to invoke the United Nations' tough Chapter VII sanctions against the Syrian regime.

But Washington held off from supporting Chapter VII's powers to initiate a military intervention and focused on economic sanctions against Syrian President Bashar Assad's embattled government.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet her British, French, Turkish and some Arab counterparts Wednesday to "discuss the situation in Syria," a Turkish diplomatic source said.

Britain's foreign minister, William Hague, France's Laurent Fabius, Turkey's Ahmet Davutoglu and several Arab ministers will be at the informal evening meeting in Istanbul on the 15-month-old crisis, the source said.

Russia and China strongly oppose foreign military intervention in Syria or Iran, said a joint statement released on Wednesday after Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Chinese leaders.

"Russia and China are decisively against attempts to regulate the Syrian crisis with outside military intervention, as well as imposing a policy of regime change, including within the Security Council," the statement said.

Israeli MPs on Wednesday voted down the preliminary reading of a draft bill that would have retroactively legalized settler homes built on private Palestinian land.

The 22-69 vote effectively thwarted an attempt to circumvent a Supreme Court ruling ordering the removal of five buildings from a settlement outpost known as the Ulpana neighborhood by July 1.