A U.N. team mandated by international envoy Kofi Annan will leave for Damascus on Monday, the former U.N. secretary general's spokesman said.

France "strongly condemned" twin bomb attacks in Damascus Saturday which Syrian authorities said killed 27 people and wounded 97, Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said.

"France condemns all acts of terrorism, which cannot be justified under any circumstances," Juppe said, expressing his condolences to the families of the victims.

Saudi Arabia is delivering military equipment to Syrian rebels in an effort to stop bloodshed by President Bashar Assad's regime, a top Arab diplomat said on Saturday.

"Saudi military equipment is on its way to Jordan to arm the Free Syrian Army," the diplomat told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

Russia on Saturday said Syrian peace envoy Kofi Annan was not seeking President Bashar Assad's ouster but a solution to the year-long conflict that suited both the opposition and the regime.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he spoke to Annan shortly after his talks with Assad earlier this month and was informed that the strongman president's resignation was not under discussion.

Iraq has informed Iran that it will not permit arms shipments to Syria to pass through or over its territory, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said on Saturday.

Yemeni security forces were on Saturday hunting for suspected al-Qaida gunmen who abducted a Swiss woman this week with no immediate leads in sight, a security official said.

"We are pursuing our search but so far we have not been able to locate where the Swiss woman is being held or know anything about her fate," a security official in southern Shabwa province told Agence France Presse.

Yemeni security forces and unknown gunmen clashed Saturday in the southern port city of Aden, wounding two policemen and a civilian, a security official told Agence France Presse.

The gunfight erupted in the city's Mualla neighborhood a day after a member of the al-Qaida-linked Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law) was arrested in the same district, the official said.

Libya wants Mauritania to extradite Abdullah al-Senussi, the arrested spymaster of slain dictator Moammar Gadhafi who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, the government said on Saturday.

"Telephone calls are underway by Libyan authorities to request his extradition," spokesman Salah al-Manaa told a news conference in Tripoli.

A top Israeli official vowed Friday to "prevent Iran from acting" if it seeks to use a nuclear weapon, amid growing impatience over Tehran's refusal to come clean on its nuclear program.

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon warned on a visit to Argentina that a nuclear-armed Iran would have "ramifications throughout the world" and allow Tehran to "achieve hegemony in the Middle East.

Two huge bomb blasts killed at least 27 people in Syria's capital on Saturday, sparking anger at Riyadh and Doha, as special envoy Kofi Annan warned of regional fallout from the year-long bloodshed.

State television said the early morning "terrorist" attacks, apparently car bombings timed minutes apart, had targeted police headquarters in the Duwar al-Jamarek area and air force intelligence offices in al-Qasaa district.