Around 1,000 women's rights supporters rallied in Tunis Saturday to the mark the anniversary of a key equal rights bill amid fears gender equality may suffer if political Islam rises in post-revolution Tunisia.

The Personal Status Code (CSP) passed on August 13, 1956 by the country's first president Habib Bourguiba that helped shape the 1959 constitution, was considered a groundbreaking document in the Arab world.

Rebels fighting east of Tripoli said they strengthened their grip on the town of Tuarga on Saturday, in a bid to create a buffer zone between Moammar Gadhafi's forces and the city of Misrata.

On the third day of an offensive, rebels from the port enclave of Misrata said they routed all but the last remaining pockets of resistance from loyalist forces.

The Libyan government insisted Zawiyah was under the regime's control on Saturday, dismissing rebel claims of having captured the port city on the road to Tripoli.

Zawiyah is completely under government control, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told reporters in the capital.

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas revealed he held four secret meetings with Israeli President Shimon Peres in a bid to revive stalled peace talks, a Palestinian official said Saturday.

He quoted Abbas as saying at a meeting of his Fatah party on Friday that: "I met Shimon Peres four times in Amman and London in an attempt to restart negotiations and the peace process on a correct foundation."

U.S. President Barack Obama joined key British and Saudi allies Saturday in demanding that the Syrian regime "immediately" halt its brutal crackdown on protesters.

During a telephone conversation, Obama and Saudi King Abdullah expressed their "shared, deep concerns about the Syrian government's use of violence against its citizens," the White House said in a statement.

France advised its citizens in Syria Saturday to leave the country as security forces continue to clamp down on pro-democracy protests.

"We advise French citizens who are still in Syria to leave the country by commercial transport," the foreign ministry said in the travel advice section of its website.

An imprisoned Libyan army colonel who surrendered to the rebel forces two months ago told Agence France Presse on Saturday that Moammar Gadhafi's regime is ridden with divisions and in the process of collapse.

Speaking from a prisoner of war camp in the rebel enclave of Misrata, Colonel Wissam Miland said Gadhafi's military hangs together through coercion and mercenary-enforced martial law, but that infighting is rife.

The Palestinians will present their bid for membership of the United Nations on September 20, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki told Agence France Presse on Saturday.

"Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will personally present the request to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon... at the opening of the sixty-sixth session," on September 20, Malki said.

Syrian troops killed at least three people as they pounded Latakia and raided other towns on Saturday, activists said, as Washington and Riyadh demanded that Damascus "immediately" halt its crackdown.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two people were killed and 15 wounded, four of them critically, during a military operation in the southern Latakia area of Ramleh, a nerve centre of anti-regime protests.

The United Nations Security Council is expected to discuss human rights and the humanitarian emergency in Syria after at least 16 people were killed as thousands of protesters rallied after Ramadan weekly prayers.

The Security Council will hold a special meeting next Thursday, diplomats at the United Nations announced.