The six Gulf Arab states vowed on Thursday to deal "decisively" with threats to any member's security and set up a $20 billion development fund for Bahrain and Oman which were hit with protests.

"The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) believes that any threat to the security of any member state harms the security of all states and will be dealt with decisively and immediately, without hesitation," they said in a statement read out at the end of a meeting in Riyadh.

A Greek military plane carrying three Dutch soldiers held by Libya after a botched attempt to free civilians arrived in Athens Friday, an Agence France Presse photographer said.

The plane touched down at Athens International Airport.

Libya is planning to cut its diplomatic relations with France after French President Nicolas Sarkozy recognized rebels opposed to Moammar Gadhafi, the official Jana news agency reported Thursday.

The Tripoli government would "consider severing ties with France after information about the dangerous intervention in Libyan affairs," a foreign ministry official was quoted as saying by Jana.

Relentless pounding by Moammar Gadhafi's forces sent rebels fleeing a key oil hub Thursday, and a town near Tripoli was recaptured, as the Red Cross warned of escalating conflict in Libya that it termed a civil war.

As loyalists appeared to have wrested back the initiative on the battlefield, a source close to Nicolas Sarkozy said the French president will propose "targeted air strikes" in Libya.

Envoys of the Middle East Quartet were meeting with Israel's chief peace negotiator on Thursday, as the Jewish state faced growing pressure to break the logjam in talks with the Palestinians.

Talks with Israeli envoy Yitzhak Molcho were being hosted by the U.S. embassy, with Washington represented by David Hale, assistant to U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell, an embassy spokesman told Agence France Presse.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe on Thursday said Paris and Berlin were calling on their European Union partners to engage in dialogue with Libyan opposition leaders.

Speaking after talks with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, Juppe said, "We are on the same track to say Colonel Gadhafi is discredited, he must go, we must engage dialogue with the new Libyan representatives."

Moroccans largely welcomed Thursday King Mohammed VI's promise of sweeping reforms, announced as uprisings rock the Arab world, but said they wanted to see if concrete changes would result.

France and Spain, former colonizers which have become key trade partners, also praised the monarch's announcement in a rare national speech late Wednesday, calling it courageous and historic.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Thursday bowed to pressure after a month of violent protests, but his pledge to devolve power to parliament was swiftly rejected as too late by the opposition.

In a major speech delivered in a gravelly voice to tens of thousands of people at a stadium in the capital Sanaa, the veteran leader of the strategic U.S. ally promised to hold a referendum on a new constitution later this year.

Nicolas Sarkozy will on Thursday meet envoys of Libya's rebel national council which is fighting to oust strongman Moammar Gadhafi, the French president's office said.

Sarkozy would meet Mahmoud Jibril and Ali Essaoui to discuss the "general situation in Libya, in particular the humanitarian situation and the actions of the national council," a statement said.

Hundreds of baton-wielding riot police barred Sudanese opposition activists from demonstrating on Wednesday, arresting dozens and beating up others, an Agence France Presse correspondent reported.

Some 500 riot police were deployed in Abu Janzeer square, in the center of the Sudanese capital Khartoum, after an alliance of opposition parties announced plans to hold a demonstration there at 1:00 pm (1000 GMT).