Bahrain has agreed to host a team of U.N. assessors following a violent crackdown on popular protests earlier this year, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said Friday.

"The government of Bahrain has agreed in principle for us to deploy an assessment mission to the country and we welcome this," said spokesman Rupert Colville.

Syrian security forces killed at least eight people on Friday as anti-regime protests broke out across Syria, including in the capital Damascus, activists said.

"We have three people killed in the southern town of Dael, three others in the Damascus suburb of Qatana, one in the suburb of Zabadani and another in Jableh, located near the coastal city of Latakia," said Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed Friday he planned to visit the Libyan rebel bastion of Benghazi and hoped to make the trip with Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron.

"We spoke about this with David Cameron. It should be a Franco-British initiative," Sarkozy told reporters after the G8 summit in Deauville, adding that no date had yet been set for the trip to eastern Libya.

Egyptians were out on Friday for nationwide rallies to protest against the ruling military council's handling of the post-revolt phase, in a call that has exposed political rifts.

In Cairo, several thousand protesters packed into Tahrir Square -- the symbolic heart of protests that toppled Hosni Mubarak in February -- for the Muslim Friday prayers.

Yemeni opposition tribal chief Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar said on Friday that there is a truce between his fighters and security forces in Sanaa, but he is ready for war if the embattled president chooses.

"There is a truce between us and (President) Ali Abdullah Saleh" for mediation to take place, said Ahmar, head of the powerful Hashid federation, at a funeral for 30 of his fighters killed in clashes with Saleh's security forces in the capital.

Qatar has decided to close its embassy in Sanaa for the time being over the embattled Yemeni president's rejection of a Gulf transition plan, the official QNA news agency reported on Friday.

"The state of Qatar is following with concern developments in the situation in Yemen... and has decided, due to the rejection of initiatives and appeals for a political solution, to temporarily close its embassy in Sanaa and recall its diplomatic personnel," QNA quoted an official spokesman as saying.

Denmark said Friday that it has given Libya's consul general five days to leave the country, declaring him unwelcome after he repeatedly voiced support for Moammar Gadhafi's recent conduct.

"I can confirm that we have told Libya's consul in Denmark that he is no longer wanted in the country and that he is persona non grata," Foreign Minister Lene Espersen told Agence France Presse.

The United States and France are united in their resolve to finish the job in Libya, U.S. President Barack Obama said after talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy at the G8 summit Friday.

Obama and the French leader said they have a convergence of views of a series of key issues during their talks, which lasted around 45 minutes, just before the wider summit considered the implications of the Arab Spring.

A draft statement from G8 leaders seen by Agence France Presse on Friday warned that the international community will take "further measures" if Syria does not stop using force against protesters.

An earlier draft had specifically threatened to turn to the United Nations Security Council to impose binding sanctions, but this was later softened under pressure from Syria's traditional ally Russia, officials said.

Russia's G8 partners have asked Moscow to mediate an end to the conflict pitting Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces against pro-democracy rebels, Russian officials said Thursday.

"Requests have been voiced that Russia take upon itself the role of a mediator in settling the situation in Libya," President Dmitry Medvedev's spokeswoman Natalia Timakova told reporters at the G8 summit in Deauville.