Activists on Tuesday accused Syrian forces of trying to sow sectarian strife in the flashpoint city of Homs, where the death toll climbed to around 50 in four days and a pro-government daily called for dialogue to end the "nightmare."

According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 13 civilians were shot dead by security forces on Monday and Tuesday in Homs, after a bloody weekend that saw 30 people killed in the central city.

Turkey's prime minister said on Tuesday he was considering visiting the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, a move likely to anger Israel amid diplomatic efforts to overcome already strained bilateral ties.

"If the conditions allow, I'm thinking of visiting Gaza," Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters. "The foreign ministry will be working on it. I wish to make such a visit, depending on the outcome."

France called Tuesday for Israel to act responsibly towards pro-Palestinian activists aboard a French yacht boarded by Israeli troops as it tried to break the blockade on the Gaza Strip.

"We've told the Israeli authorities over the last few days that if this French boat tried to break the blockade and if the Israeli authorities decided to stop it, we expect them to act with responsibility and moderation, respecting all our citizens' rights and allowing their prompt return to France," foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told journalists.

Israel will probably soon apologize to Turkey for a 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla which left nine Turkish activists dead, a senior Turkish diplomat said Tuesday.

"I would be surprised if there were no apologies since both sides have the political will to resolve this crisis," said ambassador Ozdem Sanberk, a member of the U.N. panel probing the Israeli raid.

Iran must respect its borders with Iraq, authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan said on Tuesday, after Tehran's forces clashed with Iranian Kurdish rebels, leaving several dead.

Iran said it had taken "full control" of three camps belonging to the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, a claim disputed by Baghdad.

A local al-Qaida leader -- named Saddam Hussein -- was sentenced to hang by a court in the Shiite holy city of Karbala in southern Iraq on Tuesday, an official said.

"The criminal court of Karbala sentenced Saddam Hussein, the al-Qaida leader of (the village of) Khanafsa to death by hanging," said Mohammed Hamid al-Moussawi, chairman of Karbala's provincial council.

Tunisia's main Islamist movement Ennahda on Tuesday condemned the latest spate of violent incidents in the country and reiterated its commitment to the electoral process.

"We condemn violence wherever it comes from, be it from demonstrators or from the security forces," the movement's chairman, Rached Ghannouchi, said at a press conference.

A leader of suspected al-Qaida militants in Abyan province in south Yemen has been killed by the army, a government official said on Tuesday.

The killing comes as tribesmen across Abyan began expelling the militants from the province.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's Foreign Minister Abdelati al-Obeidi is to visit Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, reports said Tuesday.

Lavrov and al-Obeidi will discuss the current situation in Libya and African Union-led mediation efforts in the meeting on Wednesday afternoon in Moscow, Russian news agencies said, without giving further details.

Egypt's embattled Prime Minister Essam Sharaf was putting final touches to his new cabinet on Tuesday after being hospitalized overnight suffering from exhaustion.

The cabinet, aimed at appeasing protesters who want a purge of old regime figures and quicker reforms, was meant to take office on Monday but a swearing in ceremony was postponed amid objections to the choice of ministers.