Six civilians were killed Tuesday and tanks were deployed near Syria's border with Iraq, activists said as President Bashar al-Assad came under sharp pressure to halt a crackdown on democracy protests.

The latest deaths came after fresh protests erupted in the eastern town of Deir Ezzor, a human rights activist told Agence France Presse, and troops pursued a scorched earth campaign in northern mountains, sending thousands fleeing.

Three opposition MPs on Tuesday quizzed Kuwait's prime minister in a secret session of parliament for allegedly harming national security by favoring ties with Iran over Gulf Arab states.

Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah, a senior member of the ruling family, said he was ready to face questioning as parliament accepted a government request to hold the grilling behind closed doors.

Palestinian factions were in Cairo on Tuesday for reconciliation talks aimed at choosing a prime minister to head a unity government.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas's Fatah has said it wants to retain Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to head the government, but the nomination was immediately rejected by Islamist Hamas movement.

Israeli troops on Tuesday arrested an official from Fatah, the party of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.

A Fatah spokesman in Qalqilya confirmed Mohammed Walawil, 26, and his brother Tawfiq, 32, had been arrested at their home in the northern West Bank city in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Hundreds of Israeli police are taking part in a training exercise in preparation for potentially large-scale Palestinian protests in September, a police spokesman said on Tuesday.

"There's an exercise that the police are carrying out... in order to deal with public order, maintaining public order, and dealing with widespread disturbances," spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told Agence France Presse.

Insurgents set off two car bombs and two suicide blasts, killing at least seven, in an al-Qaida style raid on government offices in central Iraq on Tuesday, mirroring a similar attack in March.

The dozens of gunmen taking part in the mayhem in Diyala's provincial capital of Baqouba also exchanged gunfire with Iraqi security forces, with officials warning that the toll, which included 17 wounded, could rise.

A U.S.-Israeli citizen being held in Egypt on espionage charges is not a spy, Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israeli military radio on Tuesday.

"I can say categorically that this student, who may have behaved bizarrely and irresponsibly, has no ties with Israeli, American or even lunar intelligence services," Lieberman said.

Russia and China boycotted U.N. Security Council talks on a draft resolution condemning Syria's deadly crackdown on opposition protests, diplomats said Monday.

European powers stepped up their campaigning meanwhile for the resolution with one top envoy saying the delay in Security Council action has cost hundreds of lives in Syria.

The U.S. House of Representatives vote late Monday to prohibit the use of funds for American military operations in Libya.

Lawmakers adopted the amendment to a military appropriations bill by a vote of 248 to 163.

The trial of ousted Tunisian leader Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, in exile in Saudi Arabia, will start in his absence on June 20, interim Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi told al-Jazeera Monday.

"I am announcing it for the first time, the trial will start on the 20th", Essebsi told the television channel.