Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Tuesday that Israel's diplomatic and political efforts to curb the size of a new Gaza-bound aid flotilla had been successful.

Speaking to public radio by telephone from Zagreb where he is on a visit, Lieberman said it was thanks to Israeli efforts that there were only 10 ships planning to set sail from Greece later this week.

Syrian dissidents meeting in Damascus on Monday pledged to press ahead with a "peaceful uprising for freedom" until the creation of a "democratic state."

"There are two ways forward -- the first a clear and non-negotiable move to a peaceful transition to democracy which would rescue our country and our people," opposition activist Munzer Khaddam told the meeting.

The United States termed as "significant" a Syrian opposition meeting in Damascus where around 160 activists called for democracy and a peaceful end to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

"This is a significant event," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.

Bahrain on Monday announced a high-ranging "national dialogue" opening on July 2, although the largest Shiite opposition bloc said it has not yet decided whether to take part.

"The National Dialogue chairmanship has received views and recommendations" on parliament, the cabinet, electoral districts, citizenship, corruption and sectarian issues, the government said in an English-language statement.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has called members of the opposition and intellectuals for July 10 talks on the wave of protest sweeping the country, the official SANA news agency reported Monday.

"The mechanism put in place recently for the national dialogue will invite the authorities, intellectuals and political personalities to a July 10 meeting to debate in particular amendments to the Constitution, especially Clause 8," it said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad spoke Tuesday of the legitimate demands of his people during a meeting with visiting U.S. congressman Dennis Kucinich, SANA state news agency said.

Assad told the anti-war Democratic Representative of "current events in Syria and the implementation of reforms" during their talks in Damascus, the agency reported.

Tunisia's Islamist movement Ennahda (Renaissance), has definitively pulled out of a national commission tasked with bringing in political reforms, its leader Rached Ghannouchi said Monday.

The commission "believes it has a popular legitimacy, when it hasn't," Ghannouchi told a press conference in Tunis, reproaching the panel for its "condescension."

War crimes court judges Monday issued arrest warrants for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and two of his closest allies for crimes against humanity committed against opponents of his regime, a judge said.

"The chamber hereby issues a warrant of arrest against Moammar Gadhafi," Judge Sanji Mmasenono Monageng said during a hearing at the Hague-based International Criminal Court.

The number of Syrians taking refuge at tent cities in Turkey has decreased to 11,122 after several hundred people went back home, Turkish officials said Monday.

"On June 26-27, 375 of those who had crossed to our country returned home of their own free will, while another 39 Syrian citizens were admitted in," the emergency situations agency said on its website.

Egypt's ruling military council remains committed to holding parliamentary elections in September, despite mounting calls for a delay, a military source told Agence France Presse on Monday.

"The military council insists on what it has already announced regarding (holding) elections at the end of September, in accordance with the result of a referendum" held in March, the source said.