Kuwait's Finance Minister Mustafa al-Shamali resigned on Thursday following a marathon grilling in which opposition MPs accused him of wide-ranging financial irregularities.

"I submit my resignation from my post," declared the 69-year-old minister after a passionate address in parliament following the 11-hour questioning.

Egypt wrapped up two days of polling Thursday in a landmark presidential election that pitted stability against the ideals of the uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's rule but the hard-fought contest threatened to go to a runoff.

The count began immediately after polling stations closed at 9:00 pm (1900 GMT), with for the first time an unknown outcome that may well force a second round between the two frontrunners next month.

A mortar attack in Baghdad killed one person and wounded six others on Thursday, in the second attack in the capital during key talks on Iran's nuclear program, security and medical officials said.

An interior ministry official said a mortar round struck a street in the Bataween area of central Baghdad, which lies across the Tigris River from the heavily-fortified Green Zone, where the talks between Iran and world powers pressing it to scale back its nuclear program are taking place.

Syria's embattled President Bashar Assad said on Thursday his government is capable of finding a way out of the crisis gripping his country, as he met with a visiting Iranian government minister.

"Syria has been able to overcome the pressures and threats it has faced for years and is able to get out of this crisis thanks to the strength of its people and commitment to unity and independence," Assad said, quoted by SANA state news agency.

Egypt's press on Thursday hailed the country's first presidential election since a popular uprising ousted president Hosni Mubarak as "free and historic," despite the looming uncertainty.

"We have achieved a dream," read the headline on the state-owned al-Akhbar newspaper.

The Syrian army and security forces have been responsible for the majority of the serious rights abuses committed since March this year as they hunt down defectors and opponents, U.N.-appointed investigators said on Thursday.

"Most of the serious human rights violations documented by the Commission in this update were committed by the Syrian army and security services," said the Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria, established by the U.N. Human Rights Council last year to investigate abuses there since the crackdown.

Syrian regime forces pounded the town of Rastan in central Homs province on Thursday, killing three civilians, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Violence elsewhere in Syria killed 10 other people in the morning, the Britain-based watchdog reported, including four who were summarily executed in northwestern Idlib province.

Egyptians were voting Thursday on the second day of a gripping presidential election in which candidates are pitting stability against the ideals of the uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's rule.

Small queues formed outside polling stations after they opened at 8:00 am (06:00 GMT), with voting expected to gain momentum during the day after authorities declared Thursday a public holiday to allow public sector employees to cast their ballots.

The head of Syria's main opposition bloc, Burhan Ghalioun, formally resigned from his post, a statement issued by the Syrian National Council said Thursday after a two-day meeting in Istanbul.

The SNC "office decided to accept the resignation and to ask the council president to pursue his work until the election of a new president at a meeting on June 9-10", it said.

Russia is ready to host direct talks between the Syrian regime and rebel representatives, a top official said Wednesday, in a bid to end 14 months of bloodshed that has claimed over 10,000 lives.

Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said peace mediator Kofi Annan's deputy was trying to secure agreement with the fractured foreign-based Syrian opposition on who could meet Bashar Assad's Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa.