Pro-Syrian regime villagers on Tuesday prevented United Nations observers from reaching the town of Al-Haffe where there are fears that a new massacre might be carried out, a watchdog said.

"Residents of the pro-regime village of As-Sheer blocked the road and prevented the U.N. observer team from reaching Al-Haffe," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Vatican's position "is unchanged" on the annexation of east Jerusalem, a Holy See negotiator said Tuesday, amid concern among Palestinian officials about possible concessions.

"The Holy See's position has not changed," negotiator Ettore Balestrero told the Vatican Radio after biannual talks between Israel and the Holy See on the status of Catholic Church property.

A Saudi trade body cancelled a Tuesday meeting with a Russian delegation of businessmen in protest at Moscow's position on the Syrian uprising, a top official said.

"The Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Riyadh has cancelled a scheduled meeting with a delegation of Russian businessmen in solidarity with the Syrian people," said Abdel Rahman al-Juraissi, president of the Saudi trade body.

France on Tuesday joined the United States in raising concerns that new massacres were being prepared in Syria as regime forces pounded for the eighth straight day the town of Al-Haffe.

"We share concerns about the preparation of new massacres," foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said, adding that French officials were heading to Moscow for talks on the crisis on Wednesday.

The Yemeni army seized the Al-Qaida strongholds of Jaar and Zinjibar on Tuesday, officials said, more than a year after the jihadists captured most of Abyan province.

In the first major victories of a month-long offensive, troops backed by armored vehicles entered the town of Jaar after Al-Qaida gunmen withdrew during the night.

Armed "terrorists" kidnapped on Tuesday a group of Syrians travelling in two taxis on the road to Qusayr in the central province of Homs, the state news agency SANA reported.

"An armed terrorist group seized two collective taxis which were travelling on the Qusayr road," SANA said, saying an unspecified number of passengers were abducted.

A semiofficial Iranian news agency is reporting that the country has begun to design its first nuclear submarine.

The Tuesday report by Fars quotes the deputy navy chief in charge of technical affairs, Admiral Abbas Zamini, as saying Iran has begun "initial stages" of designing the nuclear-powered craft.

U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan hopes a key meeting to address the crisis in Syria will take place soon, his spokesman said on Tuesday.

Annan, who brokered the faltering six-point plan aimed at ending the bloodshed, wants to bring together world and regional powers to put pressure on Syria's leader.

Tunisia's justice minister condemned as terrorism Tuesday a spate of overnight attacks on government offices by gangs including Islamist hardliners, warning that those guilty would be punished.

However, the rampage in several areas of the capital Tunis and in the northwest, has raised questions over the real mastermind of the violence and renewed doubts over whether the Islamist government, albeit moderate, is able to stamp it out.

Israel will evacuate the entire population of Tel Aviv if it is hit by missiles, particularly if they have unconventional warheads, the commander in charge of Israel's central region told Agence France Presse.

Colonel Adam Zusman, chief of the Home Front Command in Israel's Gush Dan region, which encompasses the city of Tel Aviv and its environs, said an attack on the center of the country would force massive evacuations.