NATO's mission in Libya has moved significantly closer to success and will end soon, the military alliance's secretary general said on Monday.

"Our operation to protect civilians has moved significantly closer to success, but we are not there yet," Rasmussen told a news conference, reiterating that air strikes will continue as long as civilians are under threat.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Monday it was for the first time granted access to a Syrian detention center.

"The Syrian authorities have granted the ICRC access to a place of detention for the first time," ICRC president Jakob Kellenberger, who held talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday, said in a statement.

Anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said on Monday he is giving the Iraqi government a "last chance" to implement reforms, or popular demonstrations would be called.

"This is the last chance before setting a date for open, peaceful, popular demonstrations," Sadr said in a statement released by his office in the holy city of Najaf, without specifying how much time he was giving the government.

Iran is ready to give the International Atomic Energy Agency "full supervision" of its nuclear program for five years if U.N. sanctions are lifted, its nuclear chief said in remarks published Monday.

"We have proposed that the agency keep Iran's activities and nuclear program under full supervision for five years, providing the sanctions are lifted," the nuclear chief, Fereydoun Abbasi Davani, told ISNA news agency.

Tehran reiterated its hope Monday that the crisis in Syria, its main ally in the region, could be resolved "through dialogue and not violence."

Iran "is certain that the Syrian people and the government have the capacity to gain national development through dialogue and refraining from any violence," Hassan Ghashghavi, deputy foreign minister in charge of consular affairs, was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

Military air strikes on a mosque killed seven civilians Monday in Jaar, an al-Qaida stronghold town in the southern Yemeni province of Abyan, a local official said.

"The Yemeni air force accidentally shelled a mosque in Jaar, killing seven people and wounding five others," the official told Agence France Presse, on condition of anonymity.

Forty Israeli passengers on a Turkish flight to Istanbul were held for an hour and a half upon arrival and questioned before being released, the Israeli foreign ministry said on Monday.

The incident came as tensions between the former allies reached new heights over a deadly May 2010 Israeli raid on a flotilla of ships that left nine Turkish citizens dead.

Syrian troops and security forces on Monday launched an assault on the central cities of Hama and Homs, where they shot dead six people, activists said, while at least two were reported killed near the Turkish border.

"More than 30 military vehicles and security forces raided Hama this morning and heavy gunfire was heard in the city," Omar Idlibi, spokesman of the Local Coordination Committees (LCC), told Agence France Presse by telephone.

The trial of Hosni Mubarak and his two sons' trial was postponed on Monday after the prosecution and defense lawyers clashed in the court room.

Dozens of the ousted Egyptian president's supporters and opponents clashed near the Cairo court before he arrived on a stretcher.

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani said Monday that Syrians are determined to keep protesting against President Bashar Assad's regime despite a deadly crackdown.

"The killing is nearly daily. But it's clear that the Syrian people will not turn back on their demands," Sheikh Hamad told pan-Arab news channel al-Jazeera.