U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in Tripoli Saturday on the first visit to Libya by a Pentagon chief to study up close the security needs of the new government.

During the visit, which will last only a few hours, Panetta will meet with Defense Minister Osama Jouili and Prime Minister Abdul Rahim al-Kib, said an AFP correspondent traveling with him.

Violence raged in the administrative heart of Egypt's capital on Saturday as troops and police deployed in force after clashes with protesters against continued military rule left nine people dead.

Smoke billowed over Tahrir Square, the iconic focus of the protest movement that overthrew veteran president Hosni Mubarak in February, after two nearby government offices caught fire, an Agence France Presse correspondent said.

Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian in the Gaza Strip overnight after firing in the direction of an explosion near the border, the army and medics said on Saturday.

Majed al-Nabahin, 35, was killed near the al-Bureij refugee camp, hospital sources said.

The Arab League expects the Damascus regime to sign up "soon" to an observer mission intended to monitor the protection of civilians, the bloc's number two Ahmed Ben Helli said on Saturday.

"There are positive signs... I expect the signing will happen soon," Ahmed Ben Helli told AFP ahead of a meeting of an Arab League ministerial commission in Qatar.

The United States said Friday it was lifting 'most' U.S. sanctions against Libya and unfreezing $30 billion in assets, but kept holdings of former strongman Moammar Gadhafi’s family blocked.

The move followed similar action by the United Nations Security Council as the world seeks to help the fledgling new government in Libya develop in what Washington has called a "responsible" manner.

France on Friday attacked Russia's proposed U.N. Security Council resolution on the Syrian crisis as "totally unbalanced" and no immediate talks were called on the measure.

Russia, having blocked U.N. action on Syria for months, surprised other members of the 15-nation council on Thursday by putting forward a draft resolution which condemns the violence by all sides in Syria.

Tunisia's new President Moncef Marzouki said in an interview aired on Friday he was against foreign intervention in Syria, where thousands have been killed in months of anti-regime protests.

"Of course I am opposed to foreign intervention in Syria," he told France 24 in his first comments on the crisis in Syria since taking office Tuesday, after the first elections since the Arab Spring was unleashed in his country.

Syrian Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa is to hold talks with Russian officials in Moscow in a bid to defuse the crisis in his country, Russian news agencies quoted a Kremlin source as saying Friday.

"He is to be received in Moscow for a serious conversation," said the source, who was not identified. "This is our contribution to a solution to the crisis, which of course is worrying us."

Kuwaiti riot police used tear gas and water cannons on Friday to disperse hundreds of stateless protesters who were demanding citizenship and other basic rights.

The police attacked some 400 people who gathered following noon prayers in Jahra, 50 kilometers northwest of Kuwait City, raising Kuwaiti flags and banners reading: "We demand Kuwaiti citizenship."

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians protested nine months into their uprising on Friday, demanding the Arab League hasten its response to a bloody crackdown on dissent, as activists said security forces shot dead 17 people across the country.

Nine people were killed in the central province of Homs, three in the central province of Hama, three in the southern province of Daraa and two near the capital Damascus, the Local Coordination Committees reported.