Switzerland has blocked 27 million francs (31.8 million dollars) worth of assets linked to the Syrian regime, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said Sunday.

Financial sanctions and travel restrictions were imposed against 23 key players in the Syrian regime in May, including President Bashar al-Assad, intelligence chief Ali Mamlouk and interior minister Mohammad Ibrahim al-Chaar, for their "involvement in the repression against demonstrators."

The Syrian army pressed a crackdown on dissent in the northwest on Sunday making sweeping arrests, as troops deployed in the hotbed central city of Hama, an activist said.

Troops backed by 97 tanks and personnel carriers advanced late Saturday on Kfar Rumma village and made arrests in the district of Jabal al-Zawiyah, said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip on Sunday called on Greece to allow a flotilla of aid ships to set sail for the Israeli-blockaded Palestinian territory.

"We regret the position of Greece, which has responded to international pressure to stop the Freedom Flotilla from sailing," Hamas foreign minister Mohammed Awad told a news conference at Gaza's port.

Gunmen killed five Iraqi policemen in a drive-by shooting at a checkpoint in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, on Sunday, a police officer said.

"At 8:30 am (0530 GMT), gunmen riding in a car and carrying automatic weapons killed five policemen guarding a checkpoint, before fleeing," the officer in the provincial capital Ramadi said.

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip struck open fields in southern Israel on Sunday, causing no damage or injuries, the Israeli army said.

"A rocket fired from Gaza fell this morning on open land in the Eshkol region," a spokeswoman told Agence France Presse.

Israeli police briefly detained a rabbi on Sunday over his endorsement of a controversial book that justifies the killing of non-Jews in certain circumstances, a police spokesman said on Sunday.

The brief detention and questioning of rabbi Yaakov Yosef, son of one of Israel's leading religious leaders, prompted his supporters to take to the streets in parts of Jerusalem, burning tires and blocking the city's light railway.

Kuwaiti naval forces on Saturday ended a mission to secure Bahrain's maritime border they began in March amid a crackdown on Shiite protesters, the official KUNA news agency reported.

"The Kuwaiti naval task force in the Kingdom of Bahrain ended today (Saturday) its mission to contribute to the protection of the maritime border of Bahrain and securing it in cooperation with the Bahraini navy, which began in March," KUNA said.

Jordanian Prime Minister Maaruf Bakhit reshuffled his cabinet on Saturday as the country faces protests denouncing corruption and demanding general reforms.

King Abdullah II issued a decree approving the first reshuffle of the cabinet, which was formed in February, bringing in nine newcomers, and changing the portfolios of two ministers.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi threatened retaliation against Europe on Friday unless NATO ceases its operations, warning loyalist forces can launch stinging attacks like "locusts and bees."

"The Libyan people are capable, one day, of taking the battle to Europe and the Mediterranean," Gadhafi said in a speech broadcast by loudspeaker to thousands of loyalists gathered in Tripoli's emblematic Green Square.

Syrian forces killed 28 civilians on Friday on a day of massive anti-regime rallies and in shelling of villages in the northwestern province of Idlib, human rights activists said.

State television meanwhile reported that President Bashar Assad sacked the governor of Hama, a day after half a million protesters flooded the central city demanding the ouster of their embattled leader.