Arab foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting Saturday to discuss Syria's failure to implement an Arab proposal to end a crackdown on protests, the Arab League said on Sunday.

A League statement said the Cairo meeting was called because of "the continuation of violence and because the Syrian government did not implement its commitments in the Arab plan to resolve the Syrian crisis."

Dissident Yemeni general Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar said on Sunday his forces have foiled a regime plot to blow up a bomb-laden car in Sanaa on the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Adha feast.

In a statement, Ahmar said a car loaded with two gas cylinders and 100 kilograms of TNT had been discovered on Saturday near the headquarters of his First Armored Division in the capital.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Sunday that sanctions against Iran should be toughened and that "everything must be done" to avoid a military conflict over Tehran's nuclear program.

"We have imposed sanctions that continue to expand, we can toughen them to put pressure on Iran," Juppe told Europe 1 radio.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Sunday it was clear that Syrian President Bashar Assad was not going to implement an Arab peace plan and there was "nothing more to expect" from his regime.

"I personally think there is nothing more to expect from this regime and that despite its occasional announcements it will not commit to a program of reforms," Juppe told Europe 1 radio.

Security forces killed at least 19 civilians as anti-regime demonstrations were staged across Syria on Sunday, the first day of the Muslim feast marking the end of the hajj, a human rights group said.

It was the fourth straight day of deadly violence since Syria agreed to an Arab peace blueprint aimed at ending nearly eight months of bloodshed.

Four crewmen died and five are still missing after an Indian ship sank in bad weather off the coast of Oman, state media in the Gulf sultanate reported on Sunday.

The Omani coastguard rescued six sailors and recovered four bodies after the sinking around 12 kilometers (eight miles) off the town of Sadh in the southern Dhofar region, the reports said.

A crucial IAEA report on Iran's nuclear program due in the next few days -- raised as a possible trigger for war by Israel -- is based on "counterfeit" claims, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in comments published on Sunday.

The update, expected to be released to International Atomic Energy Agency members on Tuesday or Wednesday, is believed to allege that Iran did theoretical modeling on nuclear warheads and is developing missiles to carry them, according to diplomats at the UN nuclear watchdog.

Hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims massed in a valley near the Saudi holy city of Mina on Sunday for the stoning of Satan, the last and most dangerous rite of the annual hajj.

Hundreds of people have been trampled to death in stampedes which have blighted several previous pilgrimages to Islam's holiest sites when the faithful rush to hurl stones at huge pillars symbolizing the devil.

Israeli President Shimon Peres warned on Sunday that an attack on Iran is becoming increasingly likely, days before a report by the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog on Iran's nuclear program is due.

"The possibility of a military attack against Iran is now closer to being applied than the application of a diplomatic option," Peres told the Israel Hayom daily.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh made a fresh appeal Saturday for dialogue "for a peaceful transition according to the constitution", while accusing the opposition of blocking attempts to end the crisis that has shaken Yemen for the past 10 months

In a message marking the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, Saleh invited the opposition to "sit at the negotiating table to resolve disputed questions related to the implementation" of a transition plan drafted by Gulf monarchies.