The United States and Iraq are embarking on a new phase in their relationship despite the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from the country next month, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said in Baghdad Wednesday.

"Our troops... are leaving Iraq and we are embarking on a new path together, a new phase in this relationship... between two sovereign nations," Biden said at the opening of a meeting of the U.S.-Iraq Higher Coordinating Committee.

Seven more people died in fresh violence across Syria on Tuesday, including a civilian killed by security forces after three of their own were gunned down by suspected mutinous soldiers, activists said.

Syrian troops killed four civilians, including a child, as they hunted for militants and arrested 29 high school students in a raid in the southern province of Daraa, cradle of the anti-regime dissent, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Saudi foreign ministry on Tuesday urged its citizens to leave Syria and not to travel to the Arab nation that has been hit by months of deadly anti-regime protests.

"Due to the security situation, Saudi Arabia urges its citizens to leave Syria and not travel there," the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

Hundreds of Palestinian civil servants called Tuesday for the labor minister to be fired after he made disparaging remarks about government workers.

Ahmed Majdalani has been under fire after remarks he made about government workers, calling them "brothers of whores," were accidentally broadcast live on Palestinian local radio on Thursday.

Morocco's King Mohammed VI on Tuesday named the head of the Islamist party that won last week's election as prime minister to lead talks on the formation of a coalition government, the palace said.

Abdelilah Benkirane, head of the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), was summoned to the palace after results showed his party won the biggest block of votes in Friday's ballot.

Syria's foreign minister will attend an emergency meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation aimed at finding ways to end the bloodshed in his country, an OIC official said Tuesday.

The meeting to be held on Wednesday comes just days after the Arab League imposed unprecedented economic sanctions on Syria, including a ban on travel of Syrian officials to Arab countries.

A group of Salafists disrupted classes on Monday at a university west of the capital Tunis, demanding a stop to mixed-sex classes and for female students to wear full face veils, officials said.

"A group of Salafists, dressed like the Afghans, have been camped in front of my office since early afternoon," Habib Kazdaghli, the dean of faculty at the University of Manuba, told Agence France Presse.

Turkey may consider setting up a buffer zone on its border in coordination with the international community in the event of a massive exodus of refugees from Syria, its foreign minister said on Tuesday.

"We are preparing for every scenario," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told Kanal 24 television channel when asked whether Turkey was mulling the creation of a buffer zone.

Russia on Tuesday urged an end to "ultimatums" against its Middle East ally Syria after the approval of Arab League sanctions and a call from Washington and the EU for an immediate end to violence.

"Right now, the most important thing is to stop acting by means of ultimatums and try to move toward political dialogue," Interfax quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying.

Egyptian polling stations opened for a second day on Tuesday after a mostly smooth start and large turnout in the first election since the fall of Hosni Mubarak.

Up to 40 million voters are being asked to choose a new parliament, in a three stage process that will end in January.