Islamists rallied on Saturday in support of President Mohammed Morsi's new expanded powers and the drafting of a contested charter, in a clear show of Egypt's deepening polarization.

The demonstration in the heart of Cairo comes a day after tens of thousands of Morsi opponents converged on Tahrir Square to protest against the president's decree and the speedy adoption of the draft constitution.

The army shelled the southwestern outskirts of Damascus on Saturday as it mounted an offensive against rebel fighters holed up in the area, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"The army shelled orchards that extend from Kfar Sousa to Daraya and are taking on rebels who control the region," said the Britain-based watchdog, which relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground.

President Moncef Marzouki said on Friday that the government of Islamist and rival Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali is not meeting the expectations of the people, as clashes between police and protesters in a flashpoint town intensified.

"The expectations of the people are huge and the performance of the government is not meeting those expectations," Marzouki said in a televised speech, stressing that Tunisia was at a crossroads between "the road to ruin and the road to recovery."

Polls closed in Kuwait's second general election in 10 months, with the opposition claiming its boycott campaign had succeeded and that voter turnout was very low.

Polls closed at 8:00 pm (17:00 GMT). Vote counting began immediately and results are expected before midnight.

The United States on Friday criticized Israel's decision to build 3,000 settler homes in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling it a setback for peace.

The White House earlier called the move -- which came in response to a historic vote in the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday to recognize Palestine within the 1967 borders as a non-member observer state -- "counterproductive."

The International Criminal Court's prosecutor's office said on Friday it was considering the legal implications after the U.N. General Assembly's overwhelming vote to make Palestine a non-member state.

"The Office of the Prosecutor takes note of the decision" and will now "consider the legal implications of this resolution," it said in a statement sent to Agence France Presse but declining to elaborate.

Unknown attackers fired at a U.N. convoy leaving Damascus airport for the second day in a row on Friday, a U.N. spokesman said.

No injuries were report from the latest attack, U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters. On Thursday, four Austrian troops in the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) for the Golan Heights were wounded when a convoy heading for the airport was attacked.

The ruling National Liberation Front won Algeria's municipal and regional elections, Interior Minister Dahou Ould Kablia announced on Friday, in a widely-expected result.

Voter turnout, considered the only real issue in Thursday's polls, was officially pegged at 44.27 percent, described by Kablia as "acceptable," as thousands had to brave poor weather conditions to cast their ballots.

Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei on Friday slammed President Mohamed Morsi and an Islamist-dominated panel that approved a new draft constitution, in a message on his Twitter account.

"The president and his constituent assembly are currently staging a coup against democracy. Regime legitimacy fast eroding," he wrote.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called on Friday for a return to peace talks, but slammed Israel's latest settlement plans in reaction to a United Nations vote recognizing Palestine as a non-member state.

"I've said a thousand times that we want to resume negotiations and we are ready to do it," Abbas told reporters in New York.