Russia on Sunday slammed a decision to suspend the Arab League's observer mission in Syria after a deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters.

"We would like to know why they are treating such a useful instrument in this way," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on a visit to Brunei, cited by the Russian ITAR-TASS news agency.

Egyptians headed to the polls on Sunday for the election of the upper house of parliament, with Islamists looking to build on their triumph in the People's Assembly.

Polling stations opened at 8:00 am (0600 GMT) with only a handful of voters in several stations, an Agence France Presse reporter said, in sharp contrast to the long lines and enthusiasm around the elections for the lower house of parliament.

Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is due to step down next month, arrived Saturday in the United States on a politically sensitive visit to seek medical treatment for wounds inflicted in a bombing.

The embattled leader flew from Oman to the United States with a brief refueling stop at Stansted Airport outside London, ending days of speculation about whether or when he would make the trip.

European and Arab U.N. members on Saturday started rewriting a proposed Security Council resolution condemning Syria's deadly crackdown on dissent after the Arab League suspended its monitoring mission in Syria.

European countries said the withdrawal highlighted the need for U.N. action. France's foreign minister contacted his Russia counterpart in a bid to overcome Moscow's resistance to the draft resolution officially presented on Friday, diplomats said.

Libya's ruling National Transitional Council said it adopted on Saturday a new electoral law on the basis of which the North African country will form its first constituent assembly in June.

The law, announced on the NTC's Facebook page, scraps a draft proposal that would have reserved 10 percent of seats on the 200-member General National Congress for women, in a move criticized by women's and rights groups.

Dozens of Libyans protested Saturday against Defense Minister Osama Juili's visit to an ex-bastion of Moammar Gadhafi, saying it showed support from the nation's new rulers to the slain dictator's diehards.

"Don't trade with the blood of martyrs for the sake of elections!" shouted angry protesters demonstrating in Tripoli against Juili's visit on Wednesday to Bani Walid after deadly clashes there killed seven people.

Thousands of Tunisians angered by the increasing prominence of ultra-conservative Islamists in a country only recently freed from dictatorial rule took to the streets in protest Saturday.

An Agence France Presse correspondent estimated several thousand activists, professors, artists and other demonstrators flooded the streets of the nation's capital, including along Bourguiba Avenue, a well-known thoroughfare that became a center for dissent during protests that led to the ouster of dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali a year ago.

Syria said it was surprised by and regrets the Arab League's decision to suspend its observer mission to the unrest-swept country on Saturday.

"Syria is surprised by and regrets the decision taken by (Arab League chief Nabil) al-Arabi to suspend the observer mission after having decided (last week) to extend it for a month," state news agency SANA said on its website.

The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas said on Saturday it does not plan to move its headquarters out of unrest-hit Syria.

"There is no change, and Hamas has not taken any decision to leave Syria, and we are still there," spokesman Fawzi Barhum told Agence France Presse.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is due to step down next month, landed in Britain on Saturday from Oman on his way to the United States for medical treatment, Yemeni and British officials said.

Saleh, who had mistakenly been reported to have left the Gulf sultanate earlier this week, arrived on Saturday afternoon at Stansted airport, just outside London, the Yemeni defense ministry's news website Sept.net said.