Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci has held talks with senior Libyan rebel figure Mahmud Jibril on the sidelines of an Arab League meeting in Cairo, an Algerian government spokesman said Monday.

"Mr. Medelci met with Mahmud Jibril on the sidelines of the Arab League meeting in Cairo which has just taken place," foreign ministry spokesman Amar Belani said in a statement, adding that the meeting had been initiated by Jibril who is the number two in the rebels' National Transitional Council.

Iran rejected Monday as "baseless" new EU sanctions targeting the al-Quds wing of the elite Revolutionary Guards which the European Union accuses of aiding the Syrian crackdown on protesters.

"We deny having any role in the internal affairs of that country (Syria)," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said according to a statement received by Agence France Presse.

A second suspected nuclear installation has been identified in Syria, according to commercial satellite photos, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The publishing Wednesday of the photos by Washington's Institute for Science and International Security could increase pressure on the United Nations to demand wide new inspections of suspect Syrian facilities during a March board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iran on Saturday inaugurated a plant for producing carbon fiber, which it is banned from importing by international sanctions targeting dual-use materials, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"Today we are witnessing the fulfillment of a strategic project of the Ministry of Defense," Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said as he inaugurated the production facility, IRNA reported.

A U.N. humanitarian mission to Syria found an "urgent need" to protect civilians against excessive force and reported widespread intimidation, a U.N. spokesman said Friday.

The mission was the first allowed into Syria since President Bashar al-Assad launched his deadly crackdown on opposition protests in March.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Friday that the potential recognition of a Palestinian state by the United Nations should only be a "step forward" for the "full liberation" of Palestine.

His strong remarks calling for Israel's "disappearance" came as tens of thousands marched in the capital at a "Quds Day" rally, an annual regime-sanctioned demonstration in solidarity with Palestinians and against Israel, according to footage aired on state television.

The emir of Qatar criticized Syria for using force against protesters demanding democratic change, describing the approach as fruitless and urging serious reforms, QNA state news agency said Friday.

"All of us, who stood by Syria in its difficult times, have tried to encourage our brothers in Syria to make real reforms," said Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who was on a visit to Iran.

A U.N. humanitarian team ended Thursday an inspection mission to Syria even though security forces are still using "excessive and lethal force" against demonstrators, officials said.

The team, which President Bashar al-Assad let into Syria last weekend after months of U.N. pressure, went to Damascus, Homs, Banias, Latakia, Hama, Aleppo and Idlib, said U.N. under secretary general B. Lynn Pascoe.

China has an "essential role" to play in efforts to boost the global economy at the next G20 meeting in November, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told his Chinese counterpart in Beijing on Thursday.

Sarkozy made the comments to President Hu Jintao during a brief stopover in China, the world's second largest economy, amid growing concern over the debt crises in the Eurozone and the United States.

Afghanistan's parliament on Wednesday rejected a decision by the war-torn country's vote authorities to replace nine MPs as part of efforts to settle a long-running dispute over last year's elections.

After almost a year of street protests and controversy over last September's fraud-tainted parliamentary polls, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) this week ordered that nine MPs be replaced.