U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas in London, having earlier insisted that Israelis and Palestinians were determined to pursue direct peace talks.

Kerry met Abbas at London's Ritz Carlton on Sunday evening, the pair smiling and joking before holding a three-hour private meeting, their first talks since direct negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians began last month.

An al-Qaida-inspired group based in Egypt's Sinai has said it was behind a bombing that targeted the interior minister in a failed assassination attempt, a statement on militant Islamist forums said.

"God has allowed your brothers in Ansar Beit al-Maqdis to shatter the security organization of the murderer Mohammed Ibrahim through a martyrdom operation," the group said in the online statement, pledging further attacks.

The daughter of Libya's ex-spy chief Abdullah Senussi, who was reportedly kidnapped last week, has been freed, a member of her tribe said on Sunday.

Senussi was intelligence chief for Libya's long-time strongman Moammar Gadhafi, and his daughter Unud had completed a 10-month jail term when she was snatched on Monday.

Israel deployed its Iron Dome missile defence system near Jerusalem Sunday, an Agence France Presse correspondent said, as the United States lobbied for domestic and international support for military strikes against Syria.

The correspondent said the battery was set up west of the city.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that Arab League ministers had agreed at talks in Paris that Syria crossed a "global red line" in its alleged chemical weapons attack, defending the publication of graphic videos showing victims of the reported assault that has catalyzed an American push for military strikes.

Kerry said a number of Arab countries were willing to sign a statement agreed by 12 countries of the G20 that called for a reaction to the alleged attack, and that they would make announcements in the next 24 hours.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has denied in an interview with CBS television that he was behind a chemical attack last month and called on lawmakers to reject planned U.S. military strikes, the U.S. network said Sunday.

"He denied that he had anything to do with the attack," CBS veteran correspondent Charlie Rose said, speaking after earlier interviewing Assad in Syria.

The Obama administration is already planning "for every contingency" in case of any fallout from U.S. military strikes against the Syrian regime, a top White House official said Sunday, as a defense official said the U.S. could increase the scale of strikes as needed.

White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough refused to be drawn on whether President Barack Obama would go ahead with any strikes if Congress refuses to give military action a green light, nor would he be drawn on any specifics.

The Israeli government on Sunday approved the allocation of 5,000 work permits for Palestinians from the West Bank, enabling them to work in the Jewish state, an official told Agence France Presse.

"The initial resolution stated that it was within the framework of the peace negotiations with the Palestinians and efforts to improve the Palestinian economy," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Tehran's city council on Sunday narrowly elected incumbent conservative mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf to continue his duties for a third four-year term, Iranian news agencies reported.

He won 16 votes out of 31 in a special mayoral election held by the reformist-dominated city council, Iranian media reported.

An al-Qaida group claimed a series of car bombs targeting Shiites in Baghdad last week as renewed violence killed seven people on Sunday amid a nationwide surge in bloodshed.

The latest attacks and claims came as authorities carried out wide-ranging operations targeting militants and implemented tight restrictions on vehicle movement in the capital in a bid to combat Iraq's worst violence since 2008.